Search

There should be easy and safe access to the delivery suite from the main hospital at all times.⁷⁷

An emergency call system should be provided.⁷⁷

Every department of anaesthesia should have a designated clinical lead (see Glossary) for anaesthesia services for trauma and a designated lead for anaesthesia services for orthopaedic surgery. This should be recognised in their job plan and they should be involved in multidisciplinary service planning and governance within the unit. They should have access to trust board through a governance...

Autonomously practising anaesthetists and intensivists should be involved in the planning of local trauma services. Those with defined responsibility for major trauma management should be engaged in the layout and logistics of the resuscitation room, interventional radiology and theatres suites.

Each department of anaesthesia should have an annual plan in place for the workload to be delivered safely and effectively.²

Organisations should explicitly recognise the 24/7 nature of trauma work which requires a specific organisational approach for standards to be achieved throughout the whole of the week.

The provision of a high-quality trauma and orthopaedic service should be an explicit aim of the hospital executive and senior staff team. This should be reflected in the hospital’s published plans and by the provision of a management structure to support this aim.^3,4,5

Hospital business plans should address the predicted growth in elective and non-elective demands due to expanding local population and an ageing population.⁶ Planning should be based on accurate and timely demand and capacity modelling.⁷

Specific local policies pertinent to trauma and orthopaedic surgery should be developed by a multidisciplinary team including an anaesthetist, acute pain nurse, pharmacist, physiotherapist, critical care clinicians, surgeons and other relevant specialties.⁹

Local policies should be in agreement with relevant published national guidelines.