East of England NHS trust

January–March 2025

Turning reported utilisation into more elective activity

How an East of England NHS trust strengthened theatre planning, reduced dropped sessions and delivered 446 additional elective cases in three months.

The Challenge

Good reported utilisation was not translating into expected activity.

The Trust was evidencing good utilisation in the national model hospital data but was delivering less activity than expected. A number of known challenges contributed to this, such as high theatre turnaround times and on-the-day cancellations, but there was also a question mark over why activity was not as high as pre-COVID performance.

Results at a glance

18.4% increase

In total elective theatre activity

38% reduction

In dropped theatre sessions

+446 cases

Compared with the same period in 2024

5.7% increase

In average cases per session

Results compare January–March 2025 with the same period in 2024.

What we changed

Productive Partners worked with the trust to strengthen theatre planning, improve visibility and address the operational causes of lost activity.

List cover and coordination

Redesigned the 6-4-2 list-cover process
Introduced tracker covering list status, compliance and dropped sessions
Strengthened senior accountability through revised 6-4-2 meetings

Scheduling and session use

Improved scheduling meetings and action tracking
Extended theatre sessions from 3.5 to 4 hours
Standardised planned session times

Turnaround and booking

Ran targeted turnaround workshops with underperforming specialties
Introduced booking scripts, 48-hour calls and two-way SMS
Reviewed preoperative assessment services

Performance and capability

Trained teams to use the theatre performance dashboard
Provided one-to-one management coaching during implementation

The outcome

More patients treated using existing theatre capacity.

Between January and March 2025, the trust delivered 2,867 elective theatre cases—446 more than during the same period in 2024.

Alongside the 18.4% increase in activity, dropped sessions fell from 443 to 275, average cases per session increased from 2.45 to 2.59 and the hospital cancellation rate reduced from 17.8% to 15.6%.

The programme helped the trust turn more available theatre time into delivered activity while establishing stronger planning and performance processes.

Reflecting on the partnership

“The support provided by the Productive Partners team has enabled our Trust colleagues to become ‘unstuck’, and to view problems through a different lens. This has resulted in a renewed energy and an eagerness to develop and adopt new practices. We have seen a significant improvement in productivity in Theatres in a short period of time and are now working with Productive Partners to ensure that this change is embedded into our practice.”

Deputy Chief Operating Officer

East of England NHS trust

More case studies

40% reduction

in late starts

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Cheshire and Merseyside

+740 theatre cases

over a 4-month period

How a South-West NHS trust strengthened theatre planning and booking to increase elective activity by 11.3% and reduce dropped sessions by more than 40%.

South West NHS Trust

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