North West NHS Trust

January - March 2025

Creating greater grip and stability across theatre planning

How a North-West NHS trust strengthened list planning, scheduling governance and performance visibility to treat 511 additional patients in three months.

The Challenge

Variation across legacy sites and weak planning controls were limiting the trust's ability to match theatre capacity with specialty demand.

The trust was working to improve theatre productivity and overall activity, but processes varied across legacy sites. There was no consistent 6-4-2 planning approach, and scheduling decisions were not always aligned with specialty-level demand. Teams needed earlier visibility of list cover and underused capacity, clearer accountability for scheduling and more reliable performance information to guide operational decisions.

Results at a glance

+511 theatre cases

delivered over 3-month period

2% improvement

in theatre session productivity

Week 4 lockdown

with a structured 6-4-2 process

Week 2 confirmation

reduced last-minute change and improved planning stability

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

What we changed

Productive Partners introduced a more disciplined planning cycle and worked with operational and business intelligence teams to embed it.

Implement the 6-4-2 process

Locked theatre lists by week four to provide greater stability, identify unused capacity earlier and give teams time to make practical adjustments.

Confirm lists earlier

Supported list lockdown at week two so teams could reduce last-minute changes and cancellations and protect planned activity.

Strengthen scheduling governance

Formalised the role of directorate leads in scheduling meetings so decisions reflected consultant working patterns and specialty requirements.

Use data to drive action

Worked with business intelligence teams to embed dashboards and surgeon-level utilisation data into planning, discussion and accountability.

The outcome

More patients were treated as planning became earlier, clearer and more consistent.

The trust completed 511 additional cases between January and March 2025 compared with the same period in 2024. Overall capped utilisation increased consistently, with an average 2% improvement in session productivity.

The new approach also strengthened scheduling governance, improved the use of performance data and helped embed earlier list lockdown and punctual starts across the service.

Reflecting on the partnership

“Productive Partners has been highly proactive in streamlining workflows, enabling us to improve theatre utilisation, staff coordination and ultimately enhance the experience for both patients and surgical teams. These improvements will have a lasting impact, ensuring we continue to deliver high-quality care in the most efficient and sustainable way.”

Trust staff member

North West NHS Trust

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