Aims - To assess whether the attendance and participation of SHOs in the operation theatre could be improved.

Methods - This was a prospective audit with all the 4 ENT SHOs providing data each day on their attendance and participation in the operation theatre. Leave was restricted to one SHO at a time in the second week of the audit. The SHOs were timetabled into theatre sessions in the third week of the audit.

Results - In the first week of the audit, there was 56% SHO attendance and 25% case participation. Following changes to the SHO rota, attendance improved to 78% and 88% and case participation increased to 63% and 61% in the second and third weeks respectively.

Conclusions - The attendance and participation in the operation theatre was improved because of weekly designing of the ENT rota, leave restricted to one SHO at a time and encouragement of SHO participation in theatre.