Bougeard AM, Brent A, Swart M, Snowden C

Anaesthesia. 2017 Aug;72(8):1010-1015. doi: 10.1111/anae.13934. Epub 2017 Jun 14.

The majority of UK hospitals now have a Local Lead for Peri-operative Medicine (n
= 115). They were asked to take part in an online survey to identify provision
and practice of pre-operative assessment and optimisation in the UK. We received
86 completed questionnaires (response rate 75%). Our results demonstrate
strengths in provision of shared decision-making clinics. Fifty-seven (65%, 95%CI
55.8-75.4%) had clinics for high-risk surgical patients. However, 80 (93%,
70.2-87.2%) expressed a desire for support and training in shared
decision-making. We asked about management of pre-operative anaemia, and
identified that 69 (80%, 71.5-88.1%) had a screening process for anaemia, with
72% and 68% having access to oral and intravenous iron therapy, respectively. A
need for peri-operative support in managing frailty and cognitive impairment was
identified, as few (24%, 6.5-34.5%) respondents indicated that they had access to
specific interventions. Respondents were asked to rank their ‘top five’ priority
topics in Peri-operative Medicine from a list of 22. These were: shared
decision-making; peri-operative team development; frailty screening and its
management; postoperative morbidity prediction; and primary care collaboration.
We found variation in practice across the UK, and propose to further explore this
variation by examining barriers and facilitators to improvement, and highlighting
examples of good practice.