Active Projects

A research evaluation of a new day surgery unit in a NHS acute trust

Over the past ten years, there has been a rapid expansion in the rates of day surgery cases. Increasing the number of day surgeries further is central to current government reforms in the NHS and is at the top of the NHS Modernisation Agency’s "10 high impact changes". Day surgery impacts care delivery practices and it represents a non-traditional form of patient treatment through a fast track approach.

Project Facts

Start date: May 2009
End date: September 2009
Investigators Professor Colin Gray
Staff Employed Richard Davies
Status Active

Project Partners

Heatherwood & Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Project Partners

HaCIRIC
School of Construction Management and Engineering
The University of Reading
Whiteknights
PO Box 219
Reading
RG6 6AW
T: +44 (0)118 378 7181
E: richard.davies(at)reading(dot)ac(dot)uk

Much of the guidance for hospital design, along with hospital themselves, was created when day surgery was the exception rather than the norm. This research analyses the development of a day surgery unit within an acute hospital in England.

The specific objectives of the project are:

  1. To produce a grounded case study description of the unit and the project.
  2. To perform an evaluation of the unit.
  3. To explore the relationships between capital development and service delivery, care pathways and service improvement projects.

It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.

Roy Disney
nephew of Walt Disney