A HOSPITAL trust hopes to save nearly £400,000 simply by being better organised.

Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust has launched a scheme aimed at improving operations.

The project includes speeding up the turnaround in operating theatres, wasting less time looking for equipment, improving patient safety, as well as increasing recovery rates at Essex County Hospital and Colchester General Hospital.

It is part of a national drive to make NHS hospitals more efficient.

It is estimated better organisation could shave £393,000 from the trust’s budget.

Anne Morris, anaesthetic and technical services manager, and a member of the group charged with implementing the scheme, said: “Even if you were looking at a one per cent increase in efficiency, with the number of patients we see a day it would be quite a marked amount.

“It may mean you can reduce patient waiting times further, or allow for maintenance to be done, which is normally done out of hours.”

Guidelines state operating theatres should be in use at least 85 per cent of the day.

Colchester’s 18 hospital theatres are in use 90 to 95 per cent of the time, carrying out 60 to 70 operations each day.

Members of the public are invited to a boardroom meeting of directors, for the trust that runs both Colchester General Hospital and Essex County Hospital.

The meeting will take place in training rooms south, near the main entrance of Colchester General Hospital, tomorrow, February 10, at 1.30pm.