Over 10 million operations are carried out every year in the UK, improving millions of lives. However, while most operations are low risk, some result in patients having poor outcomes. In 2023, NHS England launched a national programme, the national perioperative screening and optimisation programme, which aims to assess risks factors that may result in poor outcomes and mitigate those risks by supporting patients to get into the best possible health before their operation. 

 

The primary aim is to gain a deeper understanding of the programme implementation, and its overall impact on staff experience and patient care and safety. Specifically, we will investigate how the programme was designed, the factors acting as facilitators and barriers in implementation and how these impact staff experience and patient care and safety.

 

We will do this using qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse implementation uptake and outcomes of the national Early Screening and Optimisation Programme (ESOP) and identify lessons for future development of this and similar programmes in the future. Alongside the qualitative work, we will undertake a snapshot study of postponements and cancellations and will develop a protocol and data access application for a quantitative evaluation of postoperative length of stay and other relevant health outcomes. PPIE was carried out throughout protocol and study document development via document review and a workshop.

 

Finding out the most effective and efficient approaches to pre-operative health screening and optimisation is key to preparing patients before surgery. The learnings from this study will help healthcare services ensure patients are well prepared health-wise in advance of having an operation, reducing last minute cancellations and improving outcomes after surgery.