Anaesthetists should participate in departmental audit throughout a full audit cycle. This participation should adhere to the standards and principles outlined in the College’s Compendium of audit recipes.50
An appropriately skilled and experienced resident anaesthetist should be available at all times to care for postoperative and emergency patients. The experience and skills necessary to provide this cover are not usually found in training grades below ST3.
It is the responsibility of those leading departments of anaesthesia, together with their constituent consultants, to ensure that AAs work under the immediate supervision of a consultant anaesthetist at all times.14
A small number of centres perform burn surgery. These centres should offer external training opportunities for anaesthetists, nursing staff, physiotherapists and other members of the multidisciplinary team.48
Any scheduled burn lists should be organised and staffed by appropriately trained anaesthetists and surgeons, working regularly in that area, who have no conflicting clinical commitments.50
Any scheduled plastic surgery trauma lists should be organised and staffed by senior anaesthetists and surgeons, working regularly in that area and without conflicting clinical commitments.50
Each unit should have a designated clinical lead (see glossary) anaesthetist for thoracic anaesthetic services. This should be recognised in their job plan and they should be involved in multidisciplinary service planning and governance within the unit.
Continuity of care should be a priority in prolonged cases and when this is not possible, a formal documented process with some overlap should be in place for handover of clinical care from one anaesthetist to another.3
All anaesthetic equipment should be checked before use in accordance with the Association of Anaesthetists published guidelines. Anaesthetic machine checks should be recorded in a log and on the anaesthetic chart.36
