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Critical terms must be clearly and consistently used. 

For example, UK law recognises protected titles; ‘general practitioner’, ‘registered nurse’, or ‘paramedic’ have specific meanings, and to use one carries legal weight. Interestingly ‘surgeon’ appears on the GMC’s list of legally protected titles, but ‘anaesthetist’ does not.

While meaning can appear clear from context, ambiguity creates risk. It need not be highly technical terminology to cause problems. Misunderstanding of ‘OK’ contributed to the 1977 Tenerife air disaster, where a tower controller probably intended ‘I acknowledge your request to take off’, but the flight commander understood ‘you are giving me clearance for take-off’. The Boeing 747 accelerated down the runway, and shortly thereafter collided with another aircraft.

Would you like dedicated time to build your experience in research and QI while continuing clinical practice? Perhaps, you’re looking for mentorship from leading clinicians, researchers and policymakers in perioperative medicine? A fellowship with the Centre for Research and Improvement (CR&I) could be a perfect fit.

Alongside several other fellows, I’ve had the pleasure of a CR&I fellowship for the past year. Fellowships generally last 12 months, however several previous fellows have used the opportunity to develop proposals and obtain funding for higher degrees to continue their work. Fellows are attached to RCoA research projects, previously including PQIP, NELA, the QI Working Group, SNAPs and NAPs, among others.

Welcome to a new feature in this Bulletin issue in which we share and showcase education and training content to keep you up-to-date on good practice and ways of working.

In this recurring series, we’ll post event video clips, podcasts, and links to downloadable resources, some of them available exclusively to members, via the Bulletin. We’d love to know how you find this. Tell us what content you want to see here and what professional-development areas you’d benefit from.

In this issue we’re focusing on patient safety, looking at communication and simulation and featuring videos, audio, and downloadable resources drawn from across our website and beyond.

Anaesthetists in training, whatever route they are taking, are the future of our specialty. This is a guiding principle of the College and it cuts across all aspects of our work.

I have always been incredibly impressed by the professionalism, compassion, skill and knowledge of the anaesthetists in training I work with and, as a prospective service user, I can see that the future is bright but that we need to play our part by supporting you to realise that promise.

I hear many positive things from anaesthetists in training, ranging from what you love about the job, to your well-deserved pride in your achievements and your commitment to supporting your patients and colleagues. But I also hear the negative aspects. I hear you when you tell me about training interrupted by the pandemic and the unaddressed trauma from that time. Or how your life and career have been impacted by frequent rotations, exam pressures or difficulty securing a higher training place.

Dr Claire Shannon, President outlines what's coming up in 2025 and why it's important to support each other and work as part of a great team.

Happy New Year to you all. I know many of you will have been working over the festive period, but I hope you also had some time to catch up with friends and family and take a well-earned break. 

Winter is never an easy time in the NHS. During the more challenging times of the year, I’m always particularly grateful for the support of my colleagues and the benefits of working as part of a great team. I hope that’s true for you too as we look to the year ahead.  

Over the years both the College and the ME Association have been receiving a number of enquiries from patients living with ME/CFS bemoaning the lack of information on how anaesthesia might affect their condition, but also seeking reassurances that their needs in the perioperative period would be met with understanding and compassion. 

The College acknowledged that there was not much in the way of information to support these patients nor the anaesthetists looking after them, and agreed that this gap needed to be addressed given the relatively high occurrence of the condition in the UK. Current reports estimate that there are 250,000 people living with ME/CFS at any one time in the UK, but this is likely to be a gross underestimate as traditionally it is poorly diagnosed, and many Long COVID patients fulfil ME/CFS diagnostic criteria. The most recent ONS survey reports 1.7 million people in the UK living with Long COVID.

This was new territory for the College, as producing information without a comprehensive body of evidence for such a poorly understood medical condition was something we had never done before.

In my last update, I mentioned that the College has been addressing some financial challenges.  

We are committed through our current five-year plan to manage the College’s resources with care, and to ‘ensure the College is resourced and equipped to carry out its strategy: now and in the future’. One of our core values is being open and responsive, and in that spirit I am keen to share with you our current financial position, and what we are doing to improve it.

Authors:

• Dr Andrew Kane, ST7 in Anaesthesia, South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Dr Simon Davies, Reader in Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Hull York Medical School; Honorary Consultant in Anaesthesia, York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Dr David Yates, Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Honorary Senior Lecturer, HYMS
• Professor Gerard Danjoux, Honorary Professor, HYMS; Consultant in Anaesthesia, South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Chatting in a pub in York in 2019, Simon Davies, David Yates and Gerard Danjoux were reflecting on their academic careers to date. The three colleagues from York and South Tees Hospitals had worked together successfully since 2012, securing prestigious grant funding and delivering high-quality academic studies. Yet something was missing – strategy and infrastructure to create a sustainable programme of work and develop the researchers of the future.

As the evening progressed, more and more ideas were generated in direct correlation to the consumption of the excellent York ales!! Before the end of the evening, an idea was hatched, and the colleagues would form a new collaboration with an academic partner: the North Yorkshire Academic Alliance of Perioperative Medicine.