Anaesthetist appointment pre-operation

[ElTortilla]

I have surgery planned but don't have a date yet. I'm going away and I'm anxious it might clash when I get my surgery date through. I do have an appointment pre op with the anaesthetist. Does anyone know how long after the anaesthetist appointment surgery usually is? Thank you.

Oh goodness like a matter of days?

I’d say depending on the surgery it’s usually within 2 weeks of the pre op assessment typically

Op sometimes its within a week or two of the anaesthetist appointment x

Depends on the surgery. My DM was told anything up to 4 months!

For elective surgery you can tell them when you have planned holiday.

Not how the current state of the NHS is.

I know someone who had their pre op months ago. Why don’t you call and ask?

Depends on the urgency of the procedure and department waiting times. Anywhere from a week to months.

Depends on your hospital trust so have a google and see (or call). Ours is max 8 weeks from pre op to surgery. I got myself in a right flap worrying about what it was going to clash with, but actually as soon as the pre op was done and results sent to consultant for the go ahead - consultants' assistant called me to schedule a date which worked for all parties. Maybe that's the way it works here (North Hampshire) but that's what happened to me anyway. Good luck :)

Pre assessment can be valid for six months, don’t worry, just let the team know when you are away.
Trusts are trying to get ahead with pre assessment as it makes scheduling the elective lists much easier

Up to 3 months is the guidelines, but you can just call the admissions team and tell them the dates you’re unavailable and they’ll offer you a date after you come back. I manage the admissions team at my hospital and this happens daily.

I’ve had loads of surgeries and the pre op with the anaesthetist has always been about two weeks before the op.

I agree to phone the secretary of your consultant and see what their timescale is.

Anaesthetist. Depends on what surgery and what health problems you have. Minor surgery and otherwise healthy it maybe just a questionnaire and or chat with our nurses. Moderate risk that and we review your notes in clinic..major surgery or high risk and we will often see you f2f

Just tell them the dates and they'll arrange it around it

Not necessarily very, very soon.

Depends entirely on waiting lists and many other reasons.

Phone them.

Never heard of appointments with anaesthetists. What are they for? What happens?

I'm due surgery soon. I went for the pre op at the end of June and they phoned a week or two later to offer a date for surgery - it was going to be 2 days before my holiday. I just said that I would be away, they made a note of when I'd be back and rang again within a week to offer another date. I think that's why they ring rather than send a letter out - so that you have the opportunity to say if the date isn't suitable. You don't have to accept the first date they offer to you, there is a small degree of flexibility as they know people have to make arrangements and have commitments.

They don’t always do them, it depends on the surgery and the needs of the patient. I have a very rare condition called Addisons disease where I don’t produce any cortisol so take steroids daily and can suffer a fatal adrenal crisis if my steroid dose is not adjusted in times of sickness / accident etc. Before surgery it’s important the anaesthetist gives me 100mg hydrocortisone (steroid dose, very large) so my body can cope with the surgery without going into adrenal crisis and shock (and death!) so I always have a pre op with them to make sure they understand the implications and what they need to do. Often they don’t really understand the seriousness of it. I have to take paperwork from the official guidelines.

I have surgery on Friday and had the pre op appointments including meeting the anaesthetist at the end of June.

Not necessarily that soon. I'm about to have my 3rd pre op appointment for my knee replacement as they keep messing me around and they expire after so many months.

I think they ring you to agree a date and if your away or going away they either call back after or arrange it for after! The time can vary can be weeks or longer

Well yes but it’s a common occurrence for all of us with Addisons! (I’m in a forum and the amount of near misses all of us have had medical wise it’s ridiculous).

Hi everyone, thank you all for your reassurance. Looks like I'll still be going away then 😀

National guidelines changed on dosing and actually need more in some instances - I'd be careful you don't frame it as you have in that post when you talk to us it comes across as incredibly patronising at best and somewhat rude. We deal with steroid dependent pts most weeks

https://anaesthetists.org/Home/Resources-publications/Guidelines/Management-of-glucocorticoids-during-the-peri-operative-period-for-patients-with-adrenal-insufficiency

I was told the pre op is valid for 6 months when I had mine. That was 5 months ago and I still have no appintment for surgery...

I am fully aware that some of the guidelines have changed (I actually help to train medical students in adrenal insufficiency) but after nearly dying several times because people in a medical capacity - not just anaesthetists - do not fully understand adrenal insufficiency I don’t really care if I come across as patronising if it helps to educate people. It’s a constant battle for those of us who have the condition. It’s literally a life and death situation for us. I do not intend to be rude as I am sure you didn’t in your reply (!) but it’s very frustrating.

anaesthetists do quite a lot more than 'just' putting people to sleep. We don't often see people who are relatively straightforward before the day of surgery in the UK, but we do run clinics for people who have complex medical problems/ are having complex surgery/ have particular features that might make an anaesthetic more complex. An anaesthetics isn't just putting people to sleep and waking them up, it's managing cardiac /respiratory /renal /endocrine /cerebral /other physiology, working out which combination of pretty funky drugs will be safest, working out what challenges the operation will cause to a patient's normal physiology and having plan A-Z to manage all of that. We can help with making sure someone is medically as well as possible before a major operation and can help patients who have complex medical issues decide whether proceeding with an operation is actually the right thing for them and make sure they understand what particular features might cause problems (or perhaps can reassure them/ the surgeon that a perceived problem actually isn't that big an issue). Increasingly these days patients with serious medical problems are presenting for major surgery, whereas in the past that just wouldn't have been possible, and that can take up a lot of resources and come with risks that need proper multi-disciplinary input to keep them safe. We can plan what mode of anaesthetic (general/local/sedation/spinal/other) is right for a particular patient and their operation so it's not a huge surprise on the day; where patients have been identified as being likely to pose challenges to an anaesthetist (perhaps because they might be difficult to intubate or might be difficult to get a spinal into etc) we can identify whether special kit/expertise is needed in advance. We can also help with planning care post-operatively. Where a patient has modifiable lifestyle problems (like smoking/obesity/alcohol excess etc) we can advise them of the implications that might have and whether changing any of those things would improve their chances of doing well. We can help with list planning - if we know in advance that a particular patient's anaesthetic is likely to take ages then we can advise the surgeon (or more likely the managers who book the lists but have no clinical background) to book the list sensibly so we're not likely to cancel people later on in the day. Many people don't need to see an anaesthetist in clinic (and there aren't enough of us to see everyone before the day either), but if someone's suggesting a face-to-face appointment with an anaesthetist ahead of the date/before booking a date it's usually worth taking notice of that and going even if it's just for reassurance.