Theatre service centre : report of the Theatre Service Centre Committee on an experiment carried out in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh during 1964-65 on the design, equipment, and organization of a theatre service centre.

  • Scotland. South-Eastern Regional Hospital Board. Theatre Service Centre Committee.
Date:
1965
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Theatre service centre : report of the Theatre Service Centre Committee on an experiment carried out in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh during 1964-65 on the design, equipment, and organization of a theatre service centre. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTRODUCTION 1. In their recommendation that the new Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh should provide a central Theatre Supply Unit for the operating theatre suite, the Joint Planning Committee for the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh advised the Regional Hospital Board to set up an experiment to study the problem of a centralized, comprehensive, theatre service. The theoretical advantages of such a service were well known, but the Joint Planning Committee felt that its recommendation lacked detailed information in support; it wished to obtain factual evidence of the organization, design, staffing, and financial implications of such a service. 2. In November 1963 the South-Eastern Regional Hospital Board appointed a Theatre Service Centre Committee under the chairmanship of Col. W. Mackie to conduct an experiment as advised by the Joint Planning Committee. The remit to the Theatre Service Centre Committee was in the following terms :— “To conduct an experiment in the technique of the *Edinburgh Pre-Set Trolley Top Tray System for the servicing of operating theatres. and to report on matters relating to equipment, space requirements, and staffing, within six months.” 3. The Scottish Home and Health Department accepted the need for an experiment of this nature, and accordingly provided a financial grant of £23,500 for capital expenses together with the estimated running costs involved in an experiment covering a period of six months. 4. The Theatre Service Centre Committee met on 20th November 1963, and outlined the general plan of the experiment. It decided that the routine development of the experiment would be best left in the hands of a Working Party, who could take a close active interest in the daily organization of the experiment. Sufficient authority was granted to the Working Party to develop the experiment along such lines as it thought profitable and to consult such persons as it thought could assist in the experiment. The Working Party was placed under the leadership of Lt.-Col. J. H. Bowie and it included the Chairman of the Theatre Service Centre Committee, who retained financial control of the experiment. 5. The Board of Management for the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh placed Ward 4 of the Royal Infirmary at the disposal of the Theatre Service Centre Committee for the purposes of the experiment, but it was understood that, if the Board of Management decided to perpetuate the service after the experiment was completed, the accommodation would continue to be used for that purpose. The Theatre Service Centre Committee and its Working Party bore that possibility in mind in their decisions concerning structural alterations. * The design and system of use of the Edinburgh Pre-set Trolley Top Tray System have been assigned by Lt.-Col. J. H. Bowie, Mr James Dick, and Mr B. G. Summers, to the Board of Management for the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and Associated Hospitals, which has applied for a patent in the United Kingdom, in order to safe- guard the Infirmary, or any other medical user. Applications for commercial manufacture should be made to the Group Secretary and Treasurer, the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and Associated Hospitals, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, 3. I