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Inpatient pain services (IPS) should be staffed by multidisciplinary teams led by appropriately trained consultant or SAS anaesthetists. The minimum training requirement for new appointments to IPS lead roles is Royal College of Anaesthetists higher pain training.³²  Advanced pain training, or its equivalent, should be considered optimal.

The Royal College of Anaesthetists has published guidance for audits and quality improvement projects in day surgery.⁶ Each day surgery unit should have a system in place for the routine audit of important basic clinical and organisational parameters such as:

• clinical: unplanned inpatient/overnight admissions following surgery, postoperative symptoms (e.g. pain, nausea and vomiting) 
• organisational: non-attendance rates, patients cancelled...

The emergency team should be led by an autonomously practising anaesthetist (see Glossary) and include other healthcare professionals involved in the delivery of anaesthesia for emergency surgery, including other departments such as radiology, medicine and emergency departments.³  Hospitals should consider developing teams of anaesthetists, surgeons and perioperative physicians with particular interest and expertise in high-risk emergency surgery.⁹⁰