THE first snip occured at 8.30am yesterday — and they kept coming all day long. Six surgeons, nicknamed the “Southampton snippers”, rattled through almost 100 vasectomies at a south coast hospital to clear a backlog of patients.

During the surgical marathon, thought to be the first of its kind, ten patients an hour passed through a day surgery at Royal South Hampshire Hospital, as doctors took a single day to bring down the vasectomy waiting list.

Four operating theatres were set aside to cater for the men, some of whom had been waiting up to eight months for the operation. Vasectomies have become increasingly popular in recent years, but patients often face lengthy waits because they are not seen as a clinical priority.

A vasectomy involves cauterising the tubes that carry sperm through the testes with a laser. Most of the men undergoing an “express vasectomy” yesterday were out again — and smiling — within half an hour, if walking a little gingerly.

Ian Bailey, the Royal South Hampshire Hospital’s director, said he had performed 21 vasectomies yesterday, which was a personal best. One fellow consultant and his assistant had carried out “thirty to forty”, he added.

“It’s been a busy day but it has gone absolutely brilliantly,” Mr Bailey said. “I worked all through the morning and then dropped in and out this afternoon to offer relief to other members of the team so they could get a break — the last thing a patient wants is someone performing this procedure who is getting tired.”

Mr Bailey, who has been a consultant in Southampton for seven years, added: “We wanted to see if a ‘theme day’ which focused everyone on doing one thing would be more efficient — if we could do it in a production line way but so it was safe, well done, friendly and acceptable for the staff.

“[The patients] just walked into the operating room fully clothed, dropped their trousers, had the procedure and a dressing, put their trousers on and walked out. It has all been a great success.”

Peter Campion, spokesman for the Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, said that the decision had been taken as the backlog of cases had built up. “Because vasectomies are non-urgent, relatively minor operations, they are one of the most likely to be displaced by emergencies,” he said. “As a result some of these men tend to be waiting quite a long time. Some have been on the list for seven to eight months, others are luckier and have been there only a matter of weeks.”

Mr Campion said that all the patients processed yesterday had seemed pleased with the service and that a similar thing was likely to be repeated in the future to cope with increasing demand for vasectomies and other minor operations, such as hernias. Although there is usually a 25 per cent non-attendance rate for such operations, all but one man turned up.

About 64,000 vasectomies are carried out in Britain every year, more than in almost any other country.

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