Why is it important?
Once a decision and referral has been made for non-emergency, consultant-led surgery to take place on the NHS, this should happen within 4 weeks from the decision to operate. This is unless delaying surgery is advisable for further optimization, ensuring better outcome. This is in line with the latest recommendations from the 2023 NCEPOD review of care received by patients undergoing surgery for Crohn’s disease.
For IBD surgery, there should be a thorough process of assessment and optimisation but the operation should still ideally take place within this timeframe.
Due to pressures on the NHS, this does not always happen. In the 2024 IBD UK Report, it was shown that adult patients are waiting a median of four months, following optimisation, for their IBD surgery to take place. This is problematic because any delay will extend the period of anxiety that people can feel about surgery, and it has implications for quality of life as well as clinical outcomes.