Abstract

Ismat Mohammed Mutwali*, Sadigh Mohammed Abdalhalim and Aisha Ibrahim A. Omer

ABSTRACT

Cancellation or postponement on the day of surgery has significant psychological, social and financial impact on the patients and their families. It can cause significant disappointment and frustration to the patient and his family. Most of the patients feel the sudden cancellation/postponement of surgery as a strong negative experience. Aim and objectives: Our aim was to describe how patients and their families reacted to cancellation / postponement of their elective surgery on the day of surgery, and whether the gender and the reasons behind cancellation/postponement have effect on the patients` negative reactions and to find an action measure for reducing the incidence of this negative reaction. Methods: A prospective descriptive study conducted at a teaching hospital at Khartoum Bahri Sudan during 2015. Direct observation and face to face interview methods were employed for collection of data in especially designed structured questionnaire. Results: A hundred and twenty six patients participated in the study. 82 (65.1%) were males. The mean age of the participants was 33.36 year ± 23.97 and the age range was 1year – 86 years. 112 patients (88.9%) showed different degrees of negative reactions and only 14 patients (11.1%) showed a positive reaction. Most of the patients` families` reactions were negative (78.6%), 30% of them showed a very high degree of negative reaction and only 21.4% of the patients` families showed some degree of positive reaction. More male than female patients showed a higher degree of negative reactions. Discussion and conclusion: Our study demonstrated that the majority of the Sudanese patients and their families reacted negatively to late cancellation/postponement of their elective surgery. Men reacted to a higher degree of negative reaction than women. Early recognition and correction of the administrative and medical problems; detailed explanation of the reasons of cancellation/postponement to the patients and their families and answering their questions, reassuring them about what will happen further, may reduce the incidence and the degree of the negative reaction, raise the patient compliance to the planned surgery and optimize the outcome of surgery.