DAY-CASE SURGERY IN OTOLARYNGOLOGY - THE SETTING UP AND 1ST YEAR OF AFREESTANDING UNIT

A freestanding day case surgery unit for ENT cases is described and th e first year's experience reviewed. Special attention is paid to the v ariety, and complications, of surgery as the freestanding unit is 17 m iles from the main ENT centre. The difficulties of running the unit ar e reviewed. The problems encountered include arranging training for th e staff and maintaining optimum throughput of cases. Consideration is also given to the setting up and running costs of the unit. Four hundr ed and seventy-seven patients were treated from 46 lists. This account ed for 64 per cent of the total number of patients having ENT surgery in 1992 from our area.