> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.clinikehr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Set up your theatres
> Step 4 of hospital setup — add your operating theatres and decide whether an incomplete safety checklist stops a case or is only recorded.
export const StillStuck = ({topic}) =>
Still stuck{topic ? ` with ${topic}` : ''}?{' '}
Check Troubleshooting first —
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your workspace name and the time the problem happened, so we can find the
matching entry in your audit log.
;
export const TaskHeader = ({before, time, after}) =>
{before ?
Before you start
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{time ?
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{after ?
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Available in
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{roles ? {roles} : null}
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};
This is **step 4 of 5**, and the only one you can skip — a hospital that does not operate does not need it. If you do operate, this page does two jobs: it lists the rooms cases are booked into, and it sets how strictly the surgical safety checklist is enforced.
**Surgical theatre is off by default.** If there is no **Theatre** tab in Settings and no **Theatre** group in your sidebar, switch the area on first — see [Turn on your care areas](/hospital/get-started/care-areas).
## Add your theatres
The **Theatres** card is "The rooms cases are booked into." Adding one is a single field, not a dialog: enter the name — the box prompts with "New theatre name, e.g. Theatre 1" — and select **Add**. Name them the way the list is called on the day: **Theatre 1**, **Day Case Theatre**, **Obstetric Theatre**.
Each theatre then carries a status you can change as your estate changes: **Active**, **Maintenance** or **Closed**.
Two cases can never occupy the same theatre at overlapping times. An overlapping booking is refused outright rather than warned about, so the list you see is always a list that can physically run.
Theatres are deliberately optional at booking time. With none created, the card says "No theatres yet. A case can still be booked without one and assigned later." That lets a new hospital start scheduling before its estate is entered — but an unassigned case is a case nobody knows where to send, so do not leave it there.
## The surgical safety checklist
Every case carries the standard **WHO Surgical Safety Checklist (2009)** in three phases, and the phases match the moments a real team already pauses:
| Phase | When it is worked |
| ------------ | --------------------------------- |
| **Sign in** | Before induction of anaesthesia |
| **Time out** | Before skin incision |
| **Sign out** | Before the patient leaves theatre |
Ticking is open to everyone in the room. The checklist is a team instrument, not a surgeon's form, and the person who notices the gap is often not the person holding the knife.
To change the wording, reorder items, retire ones you do not use or add your own, select **Customise the checklist**. Your current items are copied in as the starting point, so you edit rather than rebuild.
## Choose your enforcement policy
One switch on the **Safety checklist** card decides what an **incomplete** phase does: **Require the checklist before a case advances**.
| Switch | What happens on an incomplete phase | Staff see |
| --------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Off** (the default) | The gap is shown and recorded, and the case proceeds | "You can continue, and the gap will be recorded." |
| **On** | The status change is refused until the phase is complete | "This clinic requires the checklist to be completed before continuing." |
Either way the case sheet names the gap precisely — "**Sign in** is incomplete — 2 of 7 items not confirmed" — so nothing is hidden by leaving the switch off.
The product's own advice is worth repeating, because it runs against instinct: most theatres leave this **off** deliberately. A system that refuses to let an operation proceed because a box is unticked tends to get worked around, after which the record is wrong **and** the checklist is theatre. Turn it on only if your governance requires it. That makes this a decision for your clinical governance lead, not one to take at a keyboard.
Change this switch deliberately and tell the theatre team. Turning it **on** mid-list will stop cases that were about to advance; turning it **off** removes a stop your team may be relying on.
## Check it worked
* **Settings → Theatre** lists every theatre you operate, each with a status.
* Open **Theatre → Theatre List** and select **Book case**. The **Theatre** picker offers your theatres by name instead of only **Unassigned**.
* Open a booked case. Each checklist phase shows its checked-of-total badge, and an incomplete phase gives the message that matches the policy you chose.
## If something goes wrong
The **Surgical theatre** care area is off — it starts that way for every hospital. Switch it on in **Settings → Facility**.
No theatres have been added yet. Add them here; a case already booked can be assigned to a theatre afterwards.
Another case already overlaps that slot in the same theatre. Overlaps are refused, not warned about — check the list for the same day.
With enforcement on, an incomplete phase stops the case advancing, and the message above the button names the phase and the count. If the checklist is complete, it is a permission — advancing a case is granted separately.
Booking, advancing, cancelling, recording an operation note, signing one and managing theatre setup are six separate permissions. See [Permissions](/platform/team/permissions).
## Next step
Bring people in by department, with the right role and permissions.
Book a case, work the checklist and sign the operation note.