Search

Authors:

• Dr Phoebe Hill, ST4 Anaesthetics, Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester
• Dr Jack Dalziel, SCF Anaesthetics, Preston Hospital, Lancashire
• Dr Stephanie Harrison, ST7 Anaesthetics, Salford Royal Hospital, Manchester

Founded in 2021 (at the height of COVID) and now in its third year, ‘Fest North-West’ was born out of the need for togetherness and team spirit. We’ve all become far too familiar with a common theme of anaesthetists in training struggling with stress and low morale and feeling underappreciated.

Unfortunately, trainee wellbeing is affected by both individual and external factors – social isolation as well as wider cultural issues of feeling underappreciated contribute negatively to trainee wellbeing. Long waiting lists, pay disputes and social media negativity haven’t helped wellbeing for any of us.

Author: Dr Duncan McGregor, anaesthetist in training in the north-west of England; Ex-Chair of GLADD – The Association of LGBTQ+ Doctors and Dentists; Honorary Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham and an LGBTQ+ Healthcare Activist

Advocating for effective analgesia in labour and perioperative care; advocating for high-quality care by considering patients as a whole; often advocating for patients for whom no intervention may be in their best interests. 

Much of our work and training as anaesthetists is centred on ensuring that our patients are advocated for to receive the very best possible care wherever we’re involved.

However, for some of us, our advocacy work can involve other areas too. I’ve spent nearly 10 years in the field of LGBTQ+ health activism.

Author: Dr Kaisha Roser, CT3 Anaesthetics, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Patient autonomy is rightly a cornerstone of modern medical practice, but the reality of healthcare can present challenges when a patient’s ideals clash with a proposed treatment plan. 

A particularly delicate issue arises when an individual’s religious or cultural beliefs prohibit the use of particular medications or the ingredients within them. Respecting a patient’s values while ensuring effective treatment requires a collaborative approach with shared responsibility.

Recently, this matter was highlighted during the preoperative assessment of a male patient undergoing orthopaedic surgery. As part of the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol, we discussed a multimodal approach to postoperative pain management, with an oral morphine solution identified as the primary analgesic option.

Author: Dr John Shenouda, ST6, Queen Charlotte’s Hospital; Member, RCoA Ethics Committee

Ethics underpins all that we do in medicine and anaesthesia. It’s a topic that’s always fascinated me, though I’ve found it challenging to incorporate into anaesthetic training besides daily clinical decision-making.

Seeking to further my understanding of medical ethics and global health, I completed a Medicine in Conflict and Catastrophe postgraduate diploma. This provided the platform for me to start vulnerability assessments. Working alongside colleagues, we successfully rehoused asylum seekers from Penally barracks to safer, more appropriate housing while their applications were reviewed.

Many royal colleges have recently formed ethics committees to advise their councils on matters relevant to the colleges and their membership.

Authors:

• Dr Catherine Browne, Anaesthetics Registrar, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham
• Dr Emma Plunkett, Consultant Anaesthetist, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham
• Dr Nancy Redfern, Consultant Anaesthetist, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Six weeks into the academic year, 40 resident anaesthetists and Locally Employed Doctors gathered on a grey September morning in the Military Seminar Room. 

The room was equipped with a flipchart, coloured pens, and a selection of baked goods — all designed to foster an atmosphere of collaboration and engagement.

Our event was facilitated by Nancy Redfern, a consultant anaesthetist from the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who has extensive mentoring experience and who had facilitated a similar event in our organisation in 2023. Nancy began with a brief presentation that outlined the current context, the principles for enhancing staff wellbeing, and the change-management model guiding the event.

Authors: 

• Dr Ishan Wijesinghe, Registrar Anaesthetics, Medway Maritime NHS Foundation Trust
• Dr A C Ruwanmali De Silva, Consultant Anaesthetist, Medway Maritime NHS Foundation Trust

We’re very proud that Medway Maritime Hospital's CEPOD team recently achieved notable recognition for their quality-improvement project with the highly commended prestigious national HSJ Award. This accolade highlights the innovative efforts aimed at enhancing patient safety and outcomes in emergency surgical care.

Dedicated operating theatres for emergency surgery, often referred to as CEPOD theatres, were introduced in the early 1990s to enhance the quality and safety of emergency surgical care. However, the efficient use of CEPOD theatres remains a persistent challenge. The process of ensuring that emergency patients are taken to the theatre promptly and safely is highly complex and depends on a multitude of factors. Our project at Medway Maritime Hospital sought to identify specific inefficiencies within this process and aimed to implement targeted improvements to optimise the utilisation of theatre time.

We conducted our quality-improvement project in two phases.

Advancing and promoting anaesthesia research is one of the College’s four core charitable aims, and this issue of the Bulletin offers a snapshot of how we are delivering on that commitment. 

As you know, translating evidence into meaningful improvement in clinical practice can be just as challenging as getting a research project off the ground. That’s why dissemination is a crucial part of our research agenda. Our message needs to be understood by those who can act upon it.  

Tracking a direct line from research findings to their impact on clinical practice can be difficult, but those connections are there. Forgive me for sharing an anecdote in an issue focused on evidence, but as I write this, I’ve just been reading NHS England’s Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, and a couple of things jumped out. 

Author: Jenny Westaway, Chair, PatientsVoices@RCoA

How well do you think your patients understand that information collected in their medical records could be used for other purposes, such as research, audit and planning services?

Do you think they would be comfortable or apprehensive? How do you feel about it? This subject – patients' data expectations – has occupied me for many years. Most researchers, understandably, are occupied by data quality, completeness, linkability, comparability, and more. However, for research projects to be successful, we must understand what patients and the public want from them.

It’s critical to get it right. There is so much public benefit that can be reaped through the use of patient data to identify and evaluate new treatments, to check the quality of care, and to plan and improve services. 

Author: Alice Simpson, Perioperative Care Manager, Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC)

Every year, thousands of patients face unexpected complications after surgery – many of which could have been prevented.

Perioperative complications remain a significant burden on patients and the NHS, with 12% of UK operations resulting in complications. The challenge isn’t the lack of evidence, but the need for systematic implementation of perioperative optimisation.

To drive change, CPOC has launched the Seven Interventions Hub, a practical resource consolidating best-practice UK guidelines and newly developed resources from CPOC.