The department has clerical/admin staff, nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals, working in collaboration to make your visit as stress free and as time efficient as possible.
Reception
At Reception, one of the clerical/admin staff will sign you in and give you a small electronic questionnaire to fill in while you’re in waiting room (if you haven’t filled this in previously), if your not sure of any of the questions, leave it until you see the Health care assistant or nurse and ask them for advice.
Healthcare support workers
Healthcare support workers will take some basic observations which may include: blood pressure, pulse, ECG, spirometry, height, weight etc.
Nurse-led preoperative assessment
You will be seen by a registered nurse who will assess your general health, medical and medication history. Please bring either a copy of the repeat prescription from your GP or all of your current medication in their original package. This allows the nurse to complete an accurate record. If you have any questions or concerns, please discuss them with the nurse at this appointment.
Anaesthetist Preoperative Assessment clinic
In some instances, you may need to see an Anaesthetist, they may examine you and talk through any health issues you may have, or what type of anaesthetic might be best for you.
Broomfield — View accessibility information about this area on the AccessAble website at https://www.accessable.co.uk/mid-and-south-essex-nhs-foundation-trust/broomfield-hospital/access-guides/a301-anaesthetic-pre-assessment.
Southend — View accessibility information about this area on the AccessAble website athttps://www.accessable.co.uk/mid-and-south-essex-nhs-foundation-trust/southend-university-hospital/access-guides/pre-assessment.
Perioperative Medicine Clinic
For patients who potentially require major surgery or have significant co-existing medical conditions, an appointment will be made with our preoperative medicine clinic, led by an anaesthetist. In this clinic we assess your baseline fitness, by asking you to undertake a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET).
There are several aims of this appointment, these include identifying your expectations from surgery and a discussion with you around your individual risks proceeding with or without surgery. We will also look at how these choices may affect your quality of life. We use these as a basis for a shared decision-making (SDM) discussion.
A CPET is used by anaesthetists to test your fitness before certain surgery, as it evaluates how your body copes with exercise (heart, lungs and muscles). The ability to undertake exercise is linked with our ability to ‘tolerate’ surgery and recover well. CPET can be a guide to inform us how well you may do both during and after an operation. The results also help us decide if you may require a higher level of nursing and medical care after your operation, should you choose to proceed.
A key role of these clinics is to ensure you are as well prepared for your potential surgery as you can be. Occasionally we find that patients are anaemic (a low haemoglobin level) during these assessments. We may require you to start iron replacement therapy prior to your surgery. Iron replacement therapy can be tablets to take or an intravenous infusion of iron (which will require a separate hospital appointment).
Other departments
At the end of your visit to AAU, you may need to go to another department, it could be to have blood taken, Xray or cardiac department for imaging or tests. The nurse will give you any paperwork you might need and directions on how to get there.
Questions you may have
You can ask the staff in AAU questions about anything you’re not sure of or would like to know, regarding your stay, operation or anaesthetic.
