British Association of Day Surgery - BADS

29/05/2026

Meet BADS Council Member Palanivelraju Gopalakrishnan. He is a locum Upper GI Consultant at the University Hospital of North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust.

He has particular interests in enhanced patient pathways, making an impact on improving patient care and reducing costs.

Read more:
https://bads.co.uk/about/bads-council/current-members/palanivelraju-gopalakrishnan/

28/05/2026

Just one week remaining until BADS Annual Conference: 4th-5th June 2026
Join us at The Royal Society of Medicine, Wimpole Street, London

This year’s conference will include sessions on frailty, special patient circumstances, thromboembolism prophylaxis, day case robotics, ambulatory urgent surgery, and day surgery and the digital age.
Workshop sessions will be held on post-operative pathways / criteria-led discharge, awake shoulder surgery and procedure room operating.

The conference will also feature the ever-popular free paper sessions and poster competition.
The first day will finish with an evening networking drinks reception at the conference venue.

For more information and to book your place:
https://bads.co.uk/conference

26/05/2026

BADS publishes Bitesize Tips for Day Surgery -short documents providing practical advice on diverse topics that do not fit within a handbook. Look out for new titles as they are published over the next few months.

https://bads.co.uk/for-members/day-surgery-bitesize-topics/

22/05/2026

The British Association of Day Surgery website offers a UK Directory of Day Surgery Units exclusively for members for networking, sharing good practice and experience.

It contains details of both clinical and nursing leads for each unit. However, we need your help to ensure that this directory is up to date. Please assist us by checking to see that your unit is listed and that the contact details we have are correct. We will update the website accordingly.
Thank you for contributing to this important resource.

https://bads.co.uk/for-members/uk-day-surgery-units/

20/05/2026

Meet Ruheana Begum, a lead nurse at Guys and St Thomas’s Foundation Trust within the Theatres, Anaesthesia and Perioperative directorate.

Ruheana is passionate about Day Surgery and became a BADS Taster Member in 2025.

Read full bio:
https://bads.co.uk/about/bads-council/current-members/ruheana-begum/

19/05/2026

Find out what day surgery units around the country & abroad are doing to facilitate day surgery in the oral free paper sessions and poster displays.

BADS Conference 4th-5th June 2026
The Royal Society of Medicine, Wimpole Street, London
https://bads.co.uk/conference

18/05/2026

Day Case Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy 4th Edition

This recently updated handbook is intended as a guide for those who are new to day case laparoscopic cholecystectomy or are endeavouring to increase their day surgery rates. It covers patient selection, preoperative assessment, anaesthetic and surgical technique, discharge criteria and useful tips.

Free to BADS members

Authors: D McWhinnie, I Smith, M Skues, C Hammond, M Deakin, G Toogood.
Updated by: D Bunting, K Russon, A Wheeler

https://bads.co.uk/for-members/bads-handbooks/day-case-laparoscopic-cholecystectomy/

15/05/2026

Day case shoulder surgery reduces NHS waiting lists

A community hospital in the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Trust has developed a day case shoulder replacement surgery pathway facilitating same-day discharge in 46% patients, which compares to national rates of 6%. This has been facilitated with a pathway taking advantage of regional anaesthesia and using modern, evidence-based surgical techniques.

Read full BBC News article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l9y5qdl7qo

The trust said offering the procedure has led to an eight-week reduction in waiting times.

14/05/2026

How confident are you about the content of the competency assessments for your day surgery team? Are they day-surgery specific or based on inpatient criteria, which are not aimed at promoting early discharge?

If you need support to develop or review existing competencies for your day surgery team the BADS/AfPP joint publication on competencies for the day surgery team new edition is now available online.

The main document sets out core competencies essential for adult day surgery from the point of admission to discharge on the same day. This is supplemented with recommendations for challenging situations arising in the day-case surgery setting and additional knowledge and skills required for adult trained nurses or allied health professionals if paediatric day-case surgery is undertaken. These competencies are relevant for staff new to, or after a long absence from day surgery and acknowledge some members of the day surgery team may include non-registered practitioners.

https://bads.co.uk/for-members/core-competencies/

13/05/2026

Develop an understanding of how digitalisation can help improve day surgery pathways.

Day Surgery and the Digital Age – 15:50 Thursday 4th June
Preop Portal – Rachel Tibble, University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust
Ambient Voice Tech – Ross Coomber, St Georges NHS Foundation Trust
Day Surgery Hernia Registry – Sue Blackwell, British Hernia Society

BADS Conference 4th-5th June 2026
The Royal Society of Medicine, Wimpole Street, London
https://bads.co.uk/conference

11/05/2026

Meet BADS Council Member Charlotte Taylor. She is a consultant anaesthetist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS FT, specialising in anaesthesia for upper GI and other high risk surgeries along with anaesthesia.

https://bads.co.uk/about/bads-council/current-members/charlotte-taylor/