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Patients requiring planned or emergency burn surgery should be cared for by theatre staff with current experience in burn care.⁴Anaesthetists who provide emergency care outside burn services should be trained to manage the initial treatment of the patient with severe burns, including timely emergency assessment, resuscitation and transfer to a burns service.

Theatre and recovery staffing arrangements should be compliant with national guidelines^.11,12,64,

Safe sedation and analgesia for burn injured patients undergoing painful procedures outside of the operating theatre environment should be available, for example staple removal, wound dressing and showering.^5,11,49,65

A nurse-led sedation service should be supported by an appropriately trained and experienced anaesthetist at all times.⁵³

Timely access to theatre staff with experience in burn care should be available outside of normal working hours in burn centres and units.⁴

Theatre teams should be informed whenever a major burn case is expected or has arrived. A member of the theatre team should be responsible for ensuring the availability of appropriately trained staff and facilities.⁴

All specialist burn services should participate in major incident planning with national and regional networks.⁴

Providers of emergency care outside burn services should have the knowledge and equipment needed to treat burn-injured patients should there be an extended delay in transporting the patients to a burn centre, as might be the case in a mass casualty incident.⁶⁶

Protocols for the use of epidural infusions, morphine infusions, patient controlled analgesia infusions and nerve catheter local anaesthesia infusions should be available and specific for children.^33,34

Transfer of the critically ill burn-injured patient between services should follow national guidelines.^67,68,69