Trained anaesthetic assistance, theatre staff and appropriate facilities should be immediately available for emergency resternotomy and cardiopulmonary bypass. A suitably trained resident anaesthetist should be immediately available for theatre emergencies and to assist the on-call consultant or autonomously practising cardiac anaesthetist in theatre out of hours.5
The lead obstetric anaesthetist should be made aware of all complaints.
An appropriately trained consultant or autonomously practising cardiac anaesthetist should be wholly and exclusively available at all times, through a formal on-call rota.4 The out of hours duties of the on-call consultant or autonomously practising cardiac theatre anaesthetist should cover only cardiac emergencies, as they can arise and escalate very rapidly, particularly in tertiary referral units. On-call cardiac intensive...
Arrangements to handover duties easily and swiftly should be made promptly and sympathetically to enable the anaesthetist or staff member to have time away from the workplace following a major adverse event. Additional support should be provided on return to work and also when the anaesthetist is presented with similar clinical scenarios.97
Anaesthetists in training should be given the appropriate level of responsibility, according to their competence and level of training, to gain the experience of emergency anaesthesia to enable them to function as a consultant later in their career. Anaesthetists in training must be appropriately supervised at all times; rotas and staffing arrangements should be in place to facilitate this training.96
