Considerable operating theatre time is wasted while patients are transferred to and from the operating theatre resulting in both anaesthetists and surgeons having to wait between patients in a high proportion of cases, averaging 1 h during a 4 h operating list. Surgery could be made more time efficient by ensuring that patients arrive in the operating theatre complex early enough (to reduce time wasted for anaesthetists and surgeons), and by having two anaesthetists available at the end of surgery, one to reverse the anaesthetic while the other starts the next induction (to reduce time waste for the surgeon), coupled to adequate recovery area capacity.