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In the last Bulletin issue, ACSA reviewed the achievements of the scheme upon its 10^th anniversary. We continue to reflect now by celebrating anaesthetic departments who have been accredited and re-accredited over the last year. They share their experiences in their own words.

This year, Santa turns 2,403 years old. Although Greek by birth, the modern-day figure of Santa is based on images drawn by American cartoonist Nast in 1863 from the description given in the poem “ 'Twas the Night Before Christmas”, first published by Moore in 1823. 

During a typical 85-year lifespan, the average American requires 9.17 surgeries. It’s not inconceivable, therefore, that with his rather risky lifestyle, Santa, too, may one day need to go under the knife.

Santa may be reluctant to take time away from work, but thinking of the not-impossible event that he ever requires surgery (perhaps due to Tim Allen-esque trauma), I have started to risk-stratify the jolly old man. Should Santa experience an untimely demise perioperatively, not only will millions of children no longer wake to gifts under the tree, but in true Santa Claus™ style, someone in the hospital might be required to eternally take up his mantle, and the rota in our hospital is difficult enough to staff as it is.

Dr Ann Shearer has been a member of PatientsVoices@RCoA since 2018, and will be stepping down this year as patient voices serve for a maximum of six years. Chair of the group, Jenny Westaway, interviewed Ann about her experiences in the role.

Jenny was particularly interested in how Ann’s own considerable professional experience had influenced her work as a patient representative. Before retiring, Ann was an associate dean with NHS Education for Scotland, having previously been a consultant/senior lecturer in restorative dentistry and vice-dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Perioperative Journal Watch is written by TRIPOM (trainees with an interest in perioperative medicine) and is a brief distillation of recent important papers and articles on perioperative medicine from across the spectrum of medical publications.

As a maturing specialty, it’s inevitable that ICM looks to its own future as an independent college which directly represents the interests of its fellows and members and the patients we treat.

While we continue to share some services with the RCoA (most obviously exams administration and communications services) we need to expand the clinical and secretariat teams to continue to deliver and grow the functions expected of the future UK College of ICM.

All outputs from the FICM Board and its committees are delivered by volunteer clinicians, many with busy clinical roles or still in ICM training. Likewise, our secretariat team although small is high calibre and punches above its weight. If we are to realise the future UK College of ICM, we’ll need to push further and deeper, doing more with more resources. In preparation for that we’ve made changes to the exams team and also embarked on a series of member engagements.

Most pain medicine consultants in the UK have anaesthetics as their base specialty. Pain medicine specialists are specially trained, qualified and revalidated, and offer integrated expert assessment and management-of-pain knowledge and skills within the context of a multidisciplinary team.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the provision of pain services. After the pandemic, the Faculty of Pain Medicine (FPM) commissioned a Gap Working Group to evaluate the state of pain services across the UK. Here’s a snapshot of what we discovered.

The gap analysis reveals that only 65% of the pain services across the country fully met the gold standard for medical involvement in pain services. Tier 1 services (community-based pain services) fared the worst, with only 33% of these services having any medical involvement. This reflects a shift towards non-medical management of chronic pain in the community. Unfortunately, this means patients will wait longer for expert diagnosis and management by pain medicine specialists. While acknowledging that not all chronic-pain patients can be seen by pain medicine specialists, there’s a need for developing pragmatic pain pathways nationally so that needy patients are escalated to pain specialist care expeditiously in a timely manner. We have recently commissioned a ‘Pragmatic Pain Pathways’ working group to address this issue found in the gap analysis.

October’s Black History Month celebrates the contributions of individuals of Black heritage, including those within the NHS. It is also an opportunity to highlight the academic challenges faced by healthcare professionals from under-represented groups, emphasising the need for diversity in our healthcare system.

Disparities in clinical academia stem from the intersection of ethnicity and gender, in addition to other contributing factors, including lack of mentorship, systemic biases, and the ‘minority tax’. For ethnic minorities, the negative correlation between clinical time and scholarly productivity diverts time away from career advancement, hindering their professional growth compared to peers.

Embracing research diversity improves care equity, reduces differential attainment for anaesthetists, and bridges gaps in academic leadership. It promotes equity-minded environments and builds a workforce that reflects the population it serves. This article examines these disparities and efforts to improve diversity in anaesthesia research.

Dear Editor,

I read the wellbeing and burnout articles in the Bulletin (Summer 2024) with interest. Though highlighted for some, it is an ‘eyeroll subject’, but the importance of wellbeing is undeniable. In particular, it is important to ensure that anaesthetists and the wider multidisciplinary team receive appropriate wellbeing and psychological support after traumatic incidents. Exposure to traumatic events is inevitable in anaesthesia. Having systems to support staff afterwards is crucial to recovery and to reduce long-term burnout and emotional toll.