Elective surgery program resources

Information for patients, carers and families

We have created several resources for the NSW public that answer frequently asked questions about:

  • how to join an elective surgery waitlist at a NSW public hospital
  • what to expect after you have been waitlisted for elective surgery
  • what to expect once you have been given a date for your elective surgery.

Read our Elective surgery resources for patients, carers and families.

Elective surgery resources

The Resource Guide provides practical advice for NSW Health staff on various aspects of the waitlist policy, examples of processes for decision making, escalation and communications around waitlist management in order to assist surgery and waitlist managers to administer the policy.

The Treat in turn principle in practiceto be used in conjunction with the ACI Theatre Efficiency Guidelines to support elective surgery list managers to organise theatre lists in conjunction with key stakeholders.

Elective Surgery Self-Assessment tool and Best Practice Self-Assessment tool: for use by elective surgery managers in conjunction with other key stakeholders to assess District/Network compliance with the Elective Surgery Access Policy.

Clinical Urgency Category (CUC) list

The CUC list provides the NSW Health recommended CUCs with corresponding Indicator Procedure Codes (IPCs).

This recommended guide of accepted Clinical Urgency Categories was developed with clinicians and managers so that patients with similar conditions are prioritised in a similar way. The appropriate categorisation of patients with similar conditions gives clinicians with greater certainty of their patients getting booked in for their surgery in the clinically recommended timeframe.

Value based surgery

Building Resilience for surgical services in NSW provides guidance on key strategies that Local Health Districts and Specialty Health Networks are to implement to improve access to elective surgery. One of those key stratgies is value based surgery. The Agency for Clinical Innovation have published the Value-Based Surgery: Clinical Practice Guide through extensive evidence review and clinical consultation. The procedures in Table 1 have been identified as offering little to no benefit to the patient based on current peer reviewed evidence, except for the specific surgical indications listed in the table.

To meet the requirements of Building Resilience for Surgical Services in NSW [IB2023_004] all Recommendation for Admissions (RFAs) received for surgery listed in Table 1 are required to have supporting evidence aligning with the indicators for surgery. This evidence must be reviewed and agreed by a review panel and endorsed by the Director of Surgery (or equivalent). A summary of this process can be found in appendices.

Joint Replacement Pathways Framework

The Joint Replacement Pathways Framework (the Framework) builds on the Agency for Clinical Innovations' Same-Day Hip and Knee Joint Replacement Surgery Key Principles; by providing details of approaches currently being used by some Local Health Districts which can be adapted to local circumstances by all Districts and Networks. These approaches provide care pathways for patients following discharge from same day or short stay orthopaedic surgery. Each facility should tailor their own pathway depending on best practice guidelines, local protocols and staff preferences.

These pathways and resources have been reviewed by the Surgical Services Taskforce and Agency for Clinical Innovation Networks.

Templates

The templates below are for the use of elective surgery waitlist staff to support the implementation of the Elective Surgery Access Policy and include the mandatory policy requirements. They have been developed in consultation with patient groups and elective surgery access manages to support good communication between patients, waitlist staff, treating doctors and General Practitioners (GPs).

Letters to patients

  • Patient on list letter - A template letter to a patient notifying them that they have been placed on an elective surgery list.
  • Admission letter - A template letter to a patient offering them a hospital admission date for their surgery.
  • CUC notification to a patient - A template letter to a patient notifying them that the reference list CUC has been allocated.
  • Patient suspension letter - A template letter to a patient notifying them that their surgery has been temporarily "suspended" as requested for personal reasons.
  • Removal from list - patient - A template letter to a patient advising them of their removal from an elective surgery list.
  • Doctor resignation letter - A template letter to a patient notifying them of the resignation of their treating doctor and giving them alternative options.
  • Audit letter - A template letter to a patient checking if they still need to have their surgery.

Letters to the treating doctor

  • Incomplete RFA letter - A template letter to the treating doctor requesting incomplete or missing information on the Recommendation for Admission (RFA) form.
  • CUC acceptance letter - A template letter to the treating doctor notifying them that the non-recommended CUC allocation has been accepted.
  • CUC information request letter - A template letter to the treating doctor requesting clinical supporting documentation for a non-recommended CUC allocation.
  • CUC non-acceptance letter - A template letter to the treating doctor notifying them that the non-recommended CUC has not been accepted.
  • No response letter - A template letter to the treating doctor notifying them that due to failure to provide clinical information, the reference list CUC has been allocated.
  • Change of CUC letter - A template letter to the treating doctor notifying them of a change to their patient's CUC.
  • Removal from list - treating doctor - A template letter to the treating doctor notifying them of the removal of their patient from an elective surgery list.

Letters to the General Practitioner

  • Patient on list - GP - A template letter to a GP notifying them that their patient has been placed on an elective surgery list.
  • Removal from list - GP - A template letter to a GP notifying them of the removal of their patient from an elective surgery list.

Auditing and reporting

  • Cerner reports - A list of the reports available in Cerner to meet the weekly and monthly policy requirements.
  • iPM reports - A list of the reports available in iPM to meet the weekly and monthly policy requirements.
  • Weekly clerical audit report - A template report to be submitted to the relevant manager and tabled at the local governance committee.
  • Monthly report to Executive - A template report to be submitted to the relevant Executive or Manager and tabled at the local governance committee.
  • Clerical audit evaluation - An audit form template to be used for quarterly evaluation of the elective surgery waitlist audit process.

Other useful resources

Current as at: Tuesday 24 October 2023
Contact page owner: System Purchasing