The patients’ waiting area should provide adequate seating for the number of patients attending a preoperative preparation clinic. This may be an appropriate place to display patient information leaflets.
The following policies should be held and easily accessible for:
If appropriate resources are not available, the level of clinical activity should be limited to ensure safe provision of intraoperative care.53
The theatre team should all engage in the use of the WHO surgical safety process,53,54 commencing with a team brief, and concluding the list with a team debrief. Debrief should highlight things done well and also identify areas requiring improvement. Teams should consider including the declaration of emergency call procedures specific to the location as part of the team brief.
Up to date, clear and complete information about operating lists should be available to the preoperative area, theatre and recovery area.
The language in all communications relating to the scheduling and listing of procedures should be unambiguous. Laterality should always be written in full, i.e. ‘left’ or ‘right’.2
Any changes to the list should be agreed by all relevant parties, to ensure that the correct operation is performed on the correct side (if relevant) of the correct patient. List amendments should be clear and unambiguous. The list should be rewritten or reprinted, including the date and time of the update.
All anaesthetic records should contain the relevant portion of the recommended anaesthetic data set for every anaesthetic and be kept as a permanent document in the patient’s medical record.55
Handover, including on moving to the postoperative care environment or to the intensive care unit, should always be to a member of staff who is competent to look after the patient at that time, and this should be clearly documented.81
Handover should be structured to ensure continuity of care.57
