Anaesthetics

The Anaesthetic Department is one of the largest in the hospital comprising 41 consultants, 21 Specialty Doctors and 27 trainees. We provide services for adults and children covering all surgical specialties provided by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust in 25 operating theatres across Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville Hospitals.

These include; emergency surgery, spinal injuries, burns and plastics, trauma and orthopaedics, general, breast and endocrine surgery, urology, ophthalmology, oral surgery and ear, nose and throat surgery.

We also provide services in other areas such as pre-operative assessment, acute and chronic pain, accident and emergency, resuscitation, critical care/intensive care including working closely with the Critical Care Outreach team and The Whiteleaf Centre.

The department is heavily involved in training doctors and other staff within the department and throughout the trust and beyond.

Paediatric Anaesthesia

We provide an anaesthetic service to children of all ages at Stoke Mandeville and Wycombe hospitals.

At Wycombe we have a day case ward for children requiring dental, ENT, urology, plastic and orthopaedic surgery.

At Stoke Mandeville we have different theatre complexes for different specialities: general and emergency surgery, plastic surgery and trauma (New Wing theatres), day surgery theatres and ophthalmology/dental surgery in Mandeville Wing. Children may need to stay in overnight following surgery, predominantly on ward 3.

We pre-assess all elective paediatric patients, mostly with a screening questionnaire, and if necessary with a follow up phone call or rarely a visit to hospital is required.

We cover all aspects of the journey through surgery, provide pain relief and pre-medication as required.

We also work closely with our paediatric colleagues if they are concerned about a particularly sick child, who may require a period of ventilation, invasive monitoring or transfer to a tertiary paediatric intensive care unit.

Obstetric Anaesthesia

The anaesthetic department provide cover to the maternity unit at Stoke Mandeville 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We are a busy unit with between 5200-5500 deliveries every year across Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and we are proud to be an important part of the multi-professional team on labour ward supporting our obstetric and midwifery colleagues.

We provide a range of services to help pregnant women both before, during and after birth. We provide a variety of pain relief methods for labour including epidurals. We also provide anaesthesia for delivery (caesarean section and other more complex deliveries such as forceps). Planned caesarean section lists take place 5 days a week.

We also run high risk obstetric anaesthetic clinics to advise on the management of mothers with complex pregnancies and specific medical issues. We work closely with the obstetric and midwifery team to build individualised care plans for childbirth.

We would encourage all women who are currently pregnant to explore pain relief options for labour in advance of the day itself and would recommend the Obstetric Anaesthetists’ Association public information website www.labourpains.com

It is certainly worth being aware of what is available so that you can make the best and most well informed decision for you. We will of course be able to help you with those decisions at the time.

We also provide services for other areas within the Trust, including oral surgery, the day procedures unit, ophthalmology and accident and emergency. That's in addition to the support we offer to the resuscitation team and the mental health trust.

Our recovery team are able to care for all types of post operative patients from the minor to the more complex. We also have the ability to care for patients requiring high dependency and intensive therapy.