Surgical safety checklist compliance: The clinical audit

•Surgical safety checklist compliance improved after the educational intervention.•The highest improvement in compliance (66.7%) was observed with the Sign-out step “Count of sponges and needles & instruments complete?”.•The least improvement in compliance (4.2%) was observed with the Time-out step “Confirm all team members have introduced themselves by name & role?”.•Lack of awareness and training was the commonest barrier to compliance with the surgical safety checklist.