Search

Anaesthesia departments should make arrangements to allow anaesthetists working solo during long surgical procedures or on overrunning lists to be relieved by a colleague or AA for meal and comfort breaks.^116,117,112

Anaesthesia associates should work within the scope of practice and levels of supervision defined by the RCoA¹⁸⁸. 

AAs should always work within an anaesthesia team led by a consultant or other autonomously practising anaesthetist who has overall responsibility for the anaesthesia care provided for the patient and whose name should be recorded in the individual patient’s medical notes.¹¹⁹

Anaesthetists providing supervision to other anaesthetists or AA’s should be easily contactable, able to provide the level of supervision required by individual supervisees and free to attend in an appropriate timeframe.¹¹⁹

Clinical governance of AAs should follow the same principles as that applied to medically qualified staff. This should include training that is appropriately focused and resourced, supervision and support in keeping with practitioners’ needs and practice responsibilities, and practice centred audit and review processes. 

There should be a dedicated trained assistant (i.e. an ODP, anaesthetic nurse or equivalent) who holds a valid registration with the appropriate regulatory body, immediately available in every location in which anaesthesia care is being delivered, whether this is by an anaesthetist or an AA.^41,119

Staff assigned to the role of anaesthetic assistant should not have any other duties that would prevent them from providing dedicated assistance to the anaesthetist during anaesthesia.⁴¹

Facilities for maintaining anaesthesia, monitoring, ventilation of patients’ lungs and for age-appropriate resuscitation, including defibrillation, should be available at all sites where patients are anaesthetised.^122,123,124

The following anaesthetic equipment is required for the safe delivery of anaesthesia, and should be immediately available at all sites where patients receive anaesthetic intervention:

• oxygen supply including an emergency back up supply
• self-inflating bag
• facemasks
• suction equipment
• airways (nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal)
• laryngoscopes, including at least one type of video laryngoscope
• intubation aids (bougies, forceps, etc.)
• supraglottic airways
• appropriate range...

Anaesthetic machines should never be able to supply a hypoxic gas mixture.¹²⁵