>Clearly not a here-and-now 'A'problem then. No anaesthetists available?
Good point. The on-call airway support in our hospital is provided by the
ICU team, rather than the anaesthetic department, which is geographically,
politically and staffing-wise distinctly separate. Most of the ICU SHOs and
middle grades are non-anaesthetists (mostly A&E, some medical, occasional
surgeon, and only 2 anaesthetists at the moment), and I'm currently working
as a middle grade on that team. It provides an interesting model for this
kind of support and has done it this way for some years. It certainly has
the advantage of never being told the anaesthetist is tied up in theatre or
on the obstetric unit, since one of us (usually two) will be in the ED very
soon after the bleep goes off, ie. in a realistic time to deal with an
airway problem. The potential disadvantage, of course, is that we're not
'real anaesthetists' and I'm sure we could start a whole new thread
discussing that one (hope someone does!).
Any ideas on the G&S problem?
Cliff Reid FFAEM
Clinical Fellow in Intensive Care
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