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Organisations should provide up to date, reliable information resources for patients and their relatives e.g. based on literature available from the Royal College of Anaesthetists and Association of Anaesthetists.²¹⁹ It should include information about the process they will experience, and what their postoperative care will mean for them.^220,221

There should an anaesthetist^#ref-1

Anaesthetists should contribute to the education and updating of midwives, anaesthetic assistants and obstetricians.

The lead obstetric anaesthetist should be made aware of all complaints.

Operating lists should be made available to the anaesthetist before the list starts.

Trauma and orthopaedic surgery should be included in anaesthetic departmental audit programmes, including continuing audit of complications and adverse events. The trauma anaesthetists should have provision in their job plan to attend trauma MDT meetings for discussion regarding high risk patients.

Anaesthetists who care for children should have received appropriate training and must ensure that at annual appraisals competence in anaesthesia and resuscitation is deemed adequate for the cases undertaken by that individual.^3,4

Anaesthesia for non-theatre environment should be delivered by a competent individual with appropriate supervision; the level of supervision should reflect the severity of the case and the seniority of the individual in accordance with the RCoA's Guidance on Supervision Arrangements for Anaesthetists.¹⁷

Protocols should be developed to ensure that accurate clinical information is available in a timely manner to the anaesthetist to avoid any delays in treatment. There should be an agreed process for alerting the mechanical thrombectomy team if anaesthetic provision is unavailable to allow referral to another mechanical thrombectomy centre.

Clinical leaders within anaesthetic services should be an integral part of system planning including how to deliver planned care and emergency care. They should have influence in all areas in which anaesthetists contribute to service delivery.⁸