• Understand national NHS priorities for elective recovery and theatre utilisation
• Explore how surgical hubs are reshaping operating theatre delivery
• Identify expectations for trusts around productivity, access and patient outcomes

Chris Perry, Consultant in Paediatric Anaesthesia, Great North Children’s Hospital

• Interpret theatre-flow visualisations to identify ground-level operational issues impacting productivity
• Recognise key barriers within the clinical workflow and explain how these barriers influence theatre efficiency
• Apply pragmatic, front-line perspectives to generate workable improvement ideas rooted in real clinical practice
• Leverage identified issues to advocate for and design meaningful productivity improvements

• Understand the role of perioperative care in improving surgical outcomes
• Explore multidisciplinary approaches to patient optimisation
• Identify strategies to reduce complications and length of stay

• Understand the end-to-end surgical pathway and its impact on patient outcomes 
• Identify best-practice interventions that support safe and effective same-day surgery 
• Evaluate how pathway redesign can drive efficiency and capacity across surgical services

• Challenge traditional resourcing assumptions: Understand how to increase elective case volume without adding extra theatres, staffing, or waiting list initiative (WLI) payments
• Quantify operational impact: Analyze real-world trust data demonstrating an 8.2% increase in case volume, a 31% reduction in median turnaround time, and the identification of ~790 additional cases per year within existing funded sessions
• Identify hidden in-session capacity: Recognize capacity mismatches, such as unearthing 26 recoverable in-session slots per month against 36 submitted WLI requests in Trauma & Orthopaedics
• Apply tariff-based capacity valuation: Evaluate financial opportunities using case-by-case NHS Payment Scheme tariffs rather than relying solely on theatre minute rates
• Evaluate real-world limitations and replicability: Examine the metric that did not improve during the pilot and identify the key operational steps required to replicate this model in other trusts

• Understand PCC expectations for Surgical First Assistant (SFA) education and eligibility
• Appreciate the governance, accountability and scope boundaries associated with the SFA role
• Gain clarity on dual‑role constraints within current national guidance
• Understand the national position on SFA scope of practice, including the Robotic Assisted Surgery (RAS) bedside assistant role
• Recognise how clearly defined role boundaries contribute to patient safety in a changing perioperative workforce

• The need for innovative models of perioperative care in building surgical services fit for the future
• Turning waiting lists into preparation lists;' how medical optimisations and prehabilitation can maximising efficiency and surgical outcomes
• Safeguarding patients;’ reducing health inequalities though prehab and tough love