General Surgery

General Comments and Directions

• Scoring should be based on the considered view of the clinician taking into account the patient’s history, examination, results of investigations and the clinician’s experience in treating like patients.
• Criteria only apply for patients where a procedure is indicated and the patient wishes it and all non-surgical therapeutic options have been explored.
• These criteria only apply to elective and arranged admissions.
• The score should be calculated during the consultation, and the patient informed whether they will be accepted for publicly funded treatment. This may occur during the first or follow-up consultation, after investigations have assisted with establishing a diagnosis (e.g. CT scans).
• If due to exceptional factors not included in the prioritisation criteria, the booking status generated does not adequately reflect the patient’s priority, the booking status may be overridden. The reason for the exception must be documented.

More than one procedure

Where two or more related but independent procedures are contemplated at the same operating session the score should relate to the most significant procedure.

Staged Procedures

A treatment procedure may be staged over several months or years. For the purpose of the priority access scoring a related series of treatments should be considered as one event. Repeat scoring is not required.

This tool does not cover:

• Paediatric cases
• Acute admissions
• Removal of skin lesions (please use the Skin Lesion tool)
• Elective, non-cancer breast surgery (please use the Plastic Surgery tool)
• Bariatric surgery (please use the Bariatric tool)