Frimley Health's Directorate of Anaesthesia has been awarded national accreditation by the Royal College of Anaesthesia of Great Britain. This means that if you are referred to any of Frimley Health's hospitals for a procedure, your anaesthetic provision is patient centred and of the highest quality care, as judged by the national lead.

Your anaesthetist will give you your anaesthetic and be responsible for your safety and wellbeing during your procedure.

They will carefully monitor you throughout your operation and make sure you wake up comfortably afterwards. They may also help with any pain management you might need after the procedure.

Anaesthetists are also involved in developing treatments to manage chronic pain and offer intensive care support to very sick patients.

Anaesthetics is one of the largest departments at Frimley Health. The department works closely with intensive care, high dependency unit, maternity and pain management.

Types of anaesthesia offered include:

• Local anaesthetic - often used during minor procedures where a small area of the body is numbed and you remain fully conscious
• General anaesthetic - often used for more serious operations where you're totally unconscious and unaware of the procedure
• Regional blocks – a local anaesthetic, giving numbness or pain relief for deeper operations where more extensive numbness is needed
• Epidural – a regional anaesthetic usually used to numb the lower half of the body. A 24 hour pain relief service is available for women in labour
• Spinal – type of regional anaesthetic used to give total numbness lasting about three hours to the lower parts of the body so surgery can be safely carried out in this area
• Sedation – medication that makes you sleepy, relaxed and calm during minor procedures

 Services provided:

• Inpatient / acute pain management - the pain team nurses and doctors visit patients and support staff throughout the Trust.
• Outpatient chronic pain management – outpatient and clinic services for people with ongoing, persistent pain management issues.  See pain management page.
• Critical care for patients with life threatening conditions, including life support machines, kidney support, and other drugs and modes of treatment.  See intensive care page.
• Coordination of the medical emergency outreach team, who respond to patients with increasing levels of life threatening illness.

The department is also involved in the education of its own specialist doctors in training, and in the education of doctors throughout the trust.

How to contact us

• Wexham Park anaesthetic department on 0300 615 3195.
• Frimley Park anaesthetic department on 0300 613 4161

Patient information

Patient controlled analgesia (PCA) leaflet