Departments of Anaesthesia that have chosen to use Physicians’ Assistants (Anaesthesia) as part of a team approach to service provision have been able to demonstrate benefits from an early stage. These have included:

• a reduction in theatre downtime between cases requiring complex anaesthesia, leading to increased throughput on lists
• a reduction in theatre downtime on dynamic lists such as trauma surgery or where same day admissions are employed
• an increase in the number of supervised lists for trainee doctors
• a reduction in locum payments or cancelled lists when 2:1 supervision is employed
• where PA(A)s have received further training in local anaesthetic and other techniques, medical manpower has been released for other tasks
• Extended roles currently include sub-Tenon blocks, brachial plexus blocks, intravenous regional anaesthesia and pre-operative exercise testing.

There is no published evidence that the provision of anaesthesia using a team approach reduces the safety or efficacy of patient care. For further information or evidence of the potential benefits of the anaesthesia team approach, refer to the DoH toolkit document. The document can be found here.

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The following organisations employ PA(A)s as part of their teams:

• Monklands General Hospital
• Lincoln County Hospital
• Royal Preston Hospital
• Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast
• Blackpool Victoria Hospital
• Lancashire Teaching Hosp NHS FT
• Victoria Hospital Fife
• NHS Forth Valley
• Hairmyres Hospital Lanarkshire
• Royal Liverpool Hospital
• University Hospital Birmingham
• NHS Lothian
• Golden Jubilee Hospital Clydebank
• Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
• Gartnavel General Hospital, Glasgow
• Victoria Hospital Fife
• Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
• North Bristol NHS Trust
• UHB NHS FT
• Swindon GWH
• Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust
• Gateshead NHS Trust
• Stoke Mandeville Hospital
• Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS FT
• West Wales General Hospital
• Buckingham Hosp NHS Trust
• Manor Hosp West Midlands
• Buckingham Hosp NHS Trust - UCLH
• Bristol Royal Infirmary
• Charing Cross
• Hull & East Yorkshire NHS FT
• Charing Cross
• Special Ambulance Transfer Service
• Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital, Grimsby
• Scunthorpe General Hospital
• Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust