CPD and the training of other staff should be facilitated by activities such as the establishment of lead practitioners and accounted for within job plans.
Members of clinical staff working within the recovery area should be certified to a standard equivalent to immediate life support providers, and training should be provided.
At all times, an anaesthetist or at least one other advanced life support provider should be immediately available.
For children, a staff member with an advanced paediatric life support qualification or an anaesthetist with paediatric competencies should be immediately available.180
Core competencies should be updated according to local and national guidelines.
Wherever possible, training should be provided in a multidisciplinary format.192
Business planning by hospitals and anaesthetic departments should ensure that the necessary time and resources are directly targeted towards preoperative preparation.71
A well-designed preoperative service should minimise patient delays through the journey to surgery, while allowing appropriate time for initiation of interventions likely to improve patient outcome. By optimising planning of patient care, with the right staff and resources available, cancellations can be reduced and the efficiency of operating lists improved.
Anaesthetists should participate in departmental audit and quality improvement projects, using specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) methodology (see Glossary) and consideration of full audit cycles (e.g. plan, do, study, act). This participation should adhere to the standards and principles outlined in the College’s Raising the Standards: RCoA Quality Improvement Compendium.5
There should be a multidisciplinary and cross specialty programme for auditing intraoperative care.
