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A system should be in place to ensure that women requiring antenatal referral to an anaesthetist are seen and assessed by an anaesthetist, normally a consultant, within a suitable time frame. Ideally, this should be in the form of multidisciplinary team management of these high risk women. Where the workload is high consideration should be given to risk stratification so...

Head and neck surgery provides an excellent opportunity for the formal and systematic training of anaesthetists in the use of advanced methods for airway management and the shared airway, including videolaryngoscopy, fibreoptic intubation, and jet and apnoeic oxygenation techniques. Where possible, additional equipment such as monitors, video recorders and airway simulators should be made available to facilitate this important aspect...

Anaesthesia for all patients undergoing major vascular surgery should be provided by or directly supervised by an anaesthetist suitably qualified, trained and experienced in vascular anaesthesia. This will usually be a consultant vascular anaesthetist, who has overall responsibility for the patient’s care. Under certain circumstances, this could be an SAS doctor who is practising regularly in this subspecialist area under...

The duty anaesthetist should have an effective and rapid means of communication with their supervisor at all times.²³ Staff working in the maternity unit should be aware of their supervisor’s identity, location and how to contact them. The name(s) of the autonomously practising anaesthetist(s) covering the delivery suite and how to contact them should be clearly displayed and easily...

Where possible, day surgery is preferable to avoid disrupting normal routines. Guidelines from the Association of Anaesthetists Guidelines on breastfeeding and sedation in breastfeeding women should be followed.⁵⁶

The anaesthetist plays a key role in the multidisciplinary team who apart from being involved in airway management in major trauma patients, should provide input into the recognition and management of acute physiological derangement, haemorrhage, and shock.

Anaesthetists providing anaesthesia for trauma and orthopaedic surgery should learn and maintain expertise in a wide range of regional anaesthetic techniques, including central and peripheral neural blockade.⁹⁶

Anaesthetists who do not have regular children’s lists but who do have both daytime and out of hours responsibility for providing care for children requiring emergency surgery should maintain appropriate clinical knowledge and skills.