Guidelines for the Provision of Anaesthetic Services (GPAS)

Introduction
The Guidelines for the Provision of Anaesthetic Services (GPAS) form the basis of recommendations produced by the Royal College of Anaesthetists (the College) for anaesthetists with responsibilities for service delivery and for healthcare managers. It was first published in 1994 and entitled ‘Guidance for Purchasers’. It was revised under the current title in 1999, 2004 and 2009.  Since 2012, it has been revised yearly, and published in electronic format only on the College website.

The 2016 edition of GPAS, for the first time, included three chapters developed using a rigorous, evidence-based process, which was accredited by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in 2016. These were the chapters describing services for effective delivery of pre-operative and postoperative care, as well as the chapter concerned with emergency anaesthesia care.

New for 2017
The 2017 edition of GPAS includes a further five chapters that have been developed using the College’s NICE-accredited process for chapter development. These are:

• Guidelines for the Provision of Paediatric Anaesthesia Services
• Guidelines for the Provision of Anaesthesia Services for an Obstetric Population
• Guidelines for the Provision of Ophthalmic Anaesthesia Services
• Guidelines for the Provision of Anaesthesia Services for Burn and Plastics Surgery (new chapter for 2017)
• Guidelines for the Provision of Anaesthesia Services for Intra-operative Care

For further information about the College’s NICE-accredited process for chapter development, or to get involved in the development of a chapter, please see the GPAS development project page.

Your input
We welcome comments and advice from clinicians and managers to enable new information obtained from audit and research to be incorporated into GPAS, so that the College’s guidance reflects and supports best practice. For comments or advice please email gpas@rcoa.ac.uk.