Elective open operations Emergency open operations Membership of the Vascular Anaesthesia Society of Great Britain and Ireland (VASGBI) Volume of cases done by anaesthetists Use of epidural anaesthesia Blood loss in open operations Temperature Monitoring and vasoactive drugs Destination after surgery Mechanical ventilation after surgery

The anaesthetist >> Emergency open operations

A consultant anaesthetist was involved in 97% of emergency cases.

Table 8. Grade of the most senior anaesthetist present at the start of anaesthesia
Grade of anaesthetist	Total	%
Consultant	185	85
Associate specialist	2	<1
Staff grade	3	1
SpR year 3+	25	11
SpR year 1/2	3	1
Sub-total	218
Unknown	2
Not answered	44
Total	264

A consultant anaesthetist was present at the start of the anaesthetic in 85% of cases. In 27 cases a more senior anaesthetist (always a consultant) took over responsibility during the operation, so that from the data available, overall a consultant was involved in 97% of cases.

Again this probably represents good practice but the question was not completed in 17% of cases. If a consultant had been present at the start of operation in all the cases with missing data, 88% of operations would have been started by a consultant anaesthetist: if a consultant had been present for none of the cases with missing data, 70% would have been started by a consultant.