Dr Fiona Donald wishes you all a very Happy New Year and hopes you were able to find some time to rest and recharge with friends and family over the the holidays.
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Dr Shepherd and Professor Krige produce resources to support you if you encounter a patient living with ME/CFS.
Over the years both the College and the ME Association have been receiving a number of enquiries from patients living with ME/CFS bemoaning the lack of information on how anaesthesia might affect their condition, but also seeking reassurances that their needs in the perioperative period would be met with understanding and compassion.
The College acknowledged that there was not much in the way of information to support these patients nor the anaesthetists looking after them, and agreed that this gap needed to be addressed given the relatively high occurrence of the condition in the UK. Current reports estimate that there are 250,000 people living with ME/CFS at any one time in the UK, but this is likely to be a gross underestimate as traditionally it is poorly diagnosed, and many Long COVID patients fulfil ME/CFS diagnostic criteria. The most recent ONS survey reports 1.7 million people in the UK living with Long COVID.
This was new territory for the College, as producing information without a comprehensive body of evidence for such a poorly understood medical condition was something we had never done before.
Jono Brüün shares the College's current financial position and outlines the depth of care and consideration taken by trustees and staff in the stewardship of the College’s assets, as we seek to make them work harder and smarter for you.
In my last update, I mentioned that the College has been addressing some financial challenges.
We are committed through our current five-year plan to manage the College’s resources with care, and to ‘ensure the College is resourced and equipped to carry out its strategy: now and in the future’. One of our core values is being open and responsive, and in that spirit I am keen to share with you our current financial position, and what we are doing to improve it.
Dr Claire Shannon, President outlines what's coming up in 2025 and why it's important to support each other and work as part of a great team.
Dr Claire Shannon, President outlines what's coming up in 2025 and why it's important to support each other and work as part of a great team.
Happy New Year to you all. I know many of you will have been working over the festive period, but I hope you also had some time to catch up with friends and family and take a well-earned break.
Winter is never an easy time in the NHS. During the more challenging times of the year, I’m always particularly grateful for the support of my colleagues and the benefits of working as part of a great team. I hope that’s true for you too as we look to the year ahead.
In this second article from his design series, Dr Greig explores how to use colour. Whether you're producing a report or even revising your anaesthetic charts, colour matters.
Whether you are producing a report, a poster, or even revising your hospital’s anaesthetic charts, colour choice is important.
Choosing colours
A colour wheel is a simple tool to help choose colours and shades (Figure 1). Analogous colours are adjacent to one another, and generally combine well. Likewise, complementary colours (those opposite one another) work. Triadic schemes are based on three equally spaced colours, while quadratic schemes use four. Colour combinations found in nature are also considered pleasing.
Chatting in a pub in York in 2019, Simon Davies, David Yates and Gerard Danjoux were reflecting on their academic careers to date. The three colleagues from York and South Tees Hospitals had worked together successfully since 2012, securing prestigious grant funding and delivering high-quality academic studies. Yet something was missing – strategy and infrastructure to create a sustainable programme of work and develop the researchers of the future.
Authors:
- Dr Andrew Kane, ST7 in Anaesthesia, South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Dr Simon Davies, Reader in Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Hull York Medical School; Honorary Consultant in Anaesthesia, York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Dr David Yates, Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Honorary Senior Lecturer, HYMS
- Professor Gerard Danjoux, Honorary Professor, HYMS; Consultant in Anaesthesia, South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Chatting in a pub in York in 2019, Simon Davies, David Yates and Gerard Danjoux were reflecting on their academic careers to date. The three colleagues from York and South Tees Hospitals had worked together successfully since 2012, securing prestigious grant funding and delivering high-quality academic studies. Yet something was missing – strategy and infrastructure to create a sustainable programme of work and develop the researchers of the future.
As the evening progressed, more and more ideas were generated in direct correlation to the consumption of the excellent York ales!! Before the end of the evening, an idea was hatched, and the colleagues would form a new collaboration with an academic partner: the North Yorkshire Academic Alliance of Perioperative Medicine.
This article looks at the Perioperative Quality Improvement Programme's new postoperative morbidity variable life adjusted display charts (pomVLAD) for all sites recruiting patients undergoing colorectal surgery and launching in 2023.
Authors:
- Dr Rachael Brooks and Dr Eleanor Warwick, PQIP Fellows and Anaesthetic Registrars, University College London Hospital
- Dr James Bedford, former PQIP fellow and Consultant Anaesthetist, University College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Professor Ramani Moonesinghe, PQIP Chief Investigator
In 2023, the Perioperative Quality Improvement Programme (PQIP) is launching new postoperative morbidity variable life adjusted display charts (pomVLAD) for all sites recruiting patients undergoing colorectal surgery. Having previously been run as a pilot study in 10 hospitals, the quality-improvement dashboard has been refined and will now provide all sites with near-real time, risk-adjusted morbidity monitoring accompanied by the display of a number of key enhanced-recovery quality-improvement (QI) targets.
For sites recruiting patients of other surgical specialties, there is also a newly developed QI dashboard which does not incorporate risk-adjustment. Dr James Bedford explains how they can be used to stimulate QI initiatives in your local hospital.
Following the murder of George Floyd in the United States in 2020, which moved and touched so many individuals and organisations across the world, the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign has acted as a catalyst for positive action and renewed debate about how best to address systemic racism in our society and issues that affect the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.
Following the murder of George Floyd in the United States in 2020, which moved and touched so many individuals and organisations across the world, the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign has acted as a catalyst for positive action and renewed debate about how best to address systemic racism in our society and issues that affect the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.
During this time the College published its own statement alongside the Faculty of Pain Medicine and the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine; this was welcomed by members, staff and the public.
Find out more about our two-year national project in collaboration with THIS Institute to improve the time it takes for patients to have emergency bowel surgery.
The Royal College of Anaesthetists has undertaken a two-year national project in collaboration with The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute to use new approaches to improve the time it takes for patients to have emergency bowel surgery.
The time taken for patients to get to the emergency operating theatre remains a stubborn problem, despite many years of research and national guidance emphasising the importance of prompt surgery to reduce morbidity and mortality.
The diagnostic and treatment pathways are complex – involving clinicians from emergency medicine, anaesthesia, surgery, critical care, radiology, and often other specialties. Patients also require resources like CT scanners and operating theatres that are often in short supply. Thinking about the multiple steps each patient must traverse, it is no surprise that they often don’t get speedy access to the operating theatre.
Dr Marie Nixon, Consultant Anaesthetist and Dr Thom O'Dell, ST7 Trainee discuss their experiences of wellbeing and what it means to them.
Understandably, well-being means something different to all of us, but does it have more awareness and recognition than 20 years ago?
Dr Marie Nixon, Consultant Anaesthetist and Dr Thom O'Dell, ST7 Trainee discuss their experiences of wellbeing and what it means to them.