The ACSA standards

During 2020, in recognition of the COVID-19 pandemic we took the decision to roll over the publication of a new set of standards until 2021. These are now available below and will shortly be uploaded on the ACSA portal. If you have any queries about what this means for your department, please contact the ACSA team directly.

What are the standards?

The ACSA standards are based on recommendations from the College’s Guidelines for the Provision of Anaesthetic Services (GPAS). The GPAS document is reviewed annually, to ensure that it remains up to date with national recommendations and any additions or amendments are reflected in an annual review of the standards. Feedback from ACSA reviewers and engaged departments is also taken into account to ensure that they are worded for maximum clarity.

Domains 1-4 cover all aspects of general anaesthetic care provided in all hospitals in the UK and include standards that cover both adult and paediatric services. The ACSA standards also contain a fifth domain which focuses on the provision of additional levels of specialised care delivered in specialist hospitals or general hospitals with a large and separate subspecialty unit.
The anaesthesia subspecialties currently included within ACSA domain five are; cardiothoracic services, neuroanaesthesia and neurocritical care, ophthalmic services and vascular services.Specialist hospitals will have to include the relevant subspecialty but for general hospitals, subspecialties are optional so please liaise with the ACSA team if this is something you wish to include.

All ACSA standards are mapped to the CQC Key Lines of Enquiry (KLoE) and the Health Inspectorate Wales (HIW) and Health Improvement Scotland (HIS) inspection domains. The GPAS references are also listed against each standard, to allow for easy consultation if further detail is required.

Gain access to the 2021 ACSA standards in several formats:

Register through the online portal to view the standards and start your self-assessment (find out how to register here). Please note that the 2021 standards are due to be uploaded to the portal in the near future; any self-assessment work you carry out in the interim will be automatically transitioned over.
For newly engaged departments, in preparation for your onsite review you will be required to submit your self-assessment through the online portal.
In addition, below you can download a PDF version of the standards along with it's supporting GPAS reference/s in full.
There is an Excel version which you may also find useful for conducting your gap-analysis.
The summary of changes document details changes between the previous 2019 version and the current set of standards.