The ACSA process

To register your department, please complete the form through the ACSA portal here. A guide to registering and using the portal can be found here. Registering holds no commitment but provides the ACSA team with an indication of the scope of service you're looking to accredit. Once your registration is approved you will also gain access to the ACSA good practice library directly through your portal self-assessment form. This gives examples of good practice from departments who have had their ACSA review visit, including evidence such as policies and audits. This is a resource that is expanding over time and if we do not have an example we will try to source one from our of our accredited departments.

The portal will ask you to provide contact details for the person responsible for co-ordinating participation in ACSA at your department. We call this the ‘ACSA lead’ and they will be the person responsible for liaising with the ACSA team. Note that there can be more than one lead.

All departments seeking accreditation will be assessed against domains 1-4 of the ACSA standards. Domains 1-4 cover all aspects of general anaesthetic care provided in all hospitals in the UK and include standards that cover both adult and paediatric services.  The ACSA standards also contain a fifth domain which focuses on the provision of additional levels of specialised care delivered in specialist hospitals or general hospitals with a large and separate subspecialty unit.

The anaesthesia subspecialties currently included within ACSA domain five are; cardiothoracic services, neuroanaesthesia and neurocritical care, ophthalmic services and vascular services. Specialist hospitals will have to include the relevant subspecialty but for general hospitals, subspecialties are optional so please liaise with the ACSA team if this is something you wish to include.