Three of the Midlands' biggest health trusts were yesterday cited as having some of the worst records on wasted surgery hours in England.
Across 16 hospital sites across the region, a total of 231 hours of ?theatre time? a week were not used - more than 12,000 hours a year.
Figures compiled by the Healthcare Commission revealed Birmingham and Midland Eye Hospital, Heartlands Hospital and Selly Oak Hospital used less than a quarter of their allotted hours.
The Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, which runs the Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre, only used 13 per cent of its surgery time - four of 34 planned hours - the worst rate in the country, according to the figures.
A trust spokeswoman said: ?This centre is a regional specialist hospital, undertaking a significant amount of complex work. It has four theatres, one of which is a dedicated day-case theatre.
?The day-case theatre operates two three-and-a-half hour lists, Monday to Friday, which is a total of 35 hours a week. On an average week 30 to 40 operations are performed in this theatre.
?A combination of day-case and complex surgery takes place in the three other thea-tres in order to make best use of theatre time, with an average of 120 operations performed in the theatres each week.? Heartlands Hospital, run by Heart of England Foundation NHS Trust, was ranked third worst in the country, using only seven of its 35 day-case surgery hours.
At Selly Oak Hospital, part of University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, just seven of its 25 planned day surgery hours were used. The hospital was ranked fifth worst in England.
Walsall Manor Hospital recorded the best figures for hours - utilising 18 of its 24 hours. Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, which opened a day case surgery unit last year, used 21 of its 31 hours - 70 per cent of its time.
Creina Lilburne, of the Healthcare Commission, said: ?It?s up to the strategic health authorities to look at why some trusts are wasting more time than others and how to tackle that problem.
?The benchmark is 70-72 per cent of time used for day case surgery. In the UK, 74,000 operations are carried out a day - if the least efficient hospital trusts become as good as the most efficient, ten per cent more operations could be carried out.?
