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The duty anaesthetist should have a clear line of communication to the supervising consultant at all times.

It is recognised that in smaller units, it may be difficult to have a duty anaesthetist exclusively dedicated to the delivery unit. If the duty anaesthetist has other responsibilities, these should be of a nature that would allow the activity to be immediately delayed or interrupted should obstetric work arise. Under these circumstances, the duty anaesthetist should be able to...

Adequate time for formal handover between shifts should be built into the timetable.

A structured tool should be considered to facilitate handover.²⁵

The duty anaesthetist should participate in delivery suite ward rounds.²⁶

When members of the healthcare team are involved in a critical incident, the personal impact on individual team members can be significant.⁵⁶ A team debriefing should take place after a significant critical incident. Critical incident stress debriefing by trained facilitators, with further psychological support, may assist individuals to recover from a traumatic event.⁶⁶ After a significant critical incident...

The secondary recovery unit should not accept inpatient activity and even at times of severe hospital escalation, every effort should be made to avoid this as it will significantly affect the day surgery activity and quality of the care provided to the day surgery patients.

There should  be designated consultants in referring hospitals and neuroscience units with overall responsibility for the organisation, infrastructure and processes to enable safe transfer of patients with a brain injury.⁶

Preoperative assessment clinics should ensure that the patient is optimised as best as possible for elective neurosurgery, e.g. for correction of anaemia, as this can reduce the length of stay, need for blood transfusion and postoperative morbidity.²⁵

The department should consider having a mobile phone available to staff for transfers of brain injured patients.⁶ Transferring team should have access to mobile phones with the relevant contact details during the transfer to enable them to communicate with the receiving unit if required.