Our anaesthetists keep you safe and free of pain during an operation. They put you to sleep, or numb the part being operated on, and watch your breathing, heart rate and blood pressure throughout. There is no outpatient clinic for anaesthesia: you meet your anaesthetist before your operation, not by booking an appointment.
We have two consultant anaesthetists. One also covers our catheterisation laboratory and coronary care unit, and our intensive care unit is led by a consultant in intensive care medicine. They cover every operation we perform: general surgery, orthopaedics, obstetrics, paediatric surgery, neurosurgery, urology and maxillofacial surgery.
Services and procedures
- General anaesthetic: you are asleep and unaware for the whole operation
- Regional anaesthetic: an injection numbs a whole region, such as below the waist; you may be awake but feel nothing
- Local anaesthetic: only the small area being worked on is numbed
- Sedation: medicine that makes you drowsy and relaxed, often given with a local or regional block
- Anaesthesia for the cathlab: cover for procedures in our catheterisation laboratory and coronary care unit
