SURGEONS fear management targets may be putting patients’ lives at risk on the operating table, a study by Bournemouth University revealed yesterday.

Forty per cent of surgeons said they had been involved in a “near-miss” during the two weeks prior to answering the questionnaire and 19 per cent had experienced an “adverse event”.

Bournemouth University surveyed 549 members of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, involved in more than 19,000 operations.

They said key causes of adverse events were target, budget and “numbers-orientated” management. Many said they did not feel in full clinical control, because of pressure from managers to get through operating lists.

Many complained of having to operate on patients they had not seen before, or a lack of time for complex operations.

Professor Colin Pritchard, from the School of Health and Social Care at Bournemouth University, and lead author of the study, said: “What we have to do is return the control of theatres and the wards back to the surgeons and the nurses.”

The authors of the paper, published in the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons, estimate that the problems arose in about three per cent of operations. A spokeswoman for the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “We have a proven record for patient safety.

“The trust currently holds the national CHKS award for patient safety, judged using data including mortality rates, readmission rates, complications of anaesthesia and post op pulmonary or DVT. All of our patients have the opportunity to attend outpatient clinics/pre screening or pre assessment before they undergo surgery and meet their surgeon prior to their operation.”

A spokeswoman for Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “The safety of our patients is an absolute priority at all times. We have adopted the World Health Organisation surgical safety checklist, which involves a period of ‘time out’ and completion of a safety checklist before starting surgery on every patient.

“Although occasionally a patient may be on the operating list of a surgeon they have not met prior to coming into hospital, the surgeon will always meet the patient and agree the appropriateness of the procedure with them before they come to the operating department.”