ANAESTHETICS

The anaesthetic departments at Ipswich and Colchester hospital provide a comprehensive 24/7 anaesthetic service for upper/lower GI, urology, ENT, obstetrics, gynaeoncology, orthopaedics, vascular and spinal surgery. There are also elective theatre lists which include experience in paediatrics.

Ipswich Hospital

The anaesthetics team at Ipswich Hospital currently have 32 generalist anaesthetic consultants, 9 critical care anaesthetic consultants, 7 speciality doctors and up to 30 junior doctors (anaesthetic core trainees, speciality trainees, ICM, ACCS, DREEM IMT and FY1 doctors).

There are 19 operating theatres at Ipswich Hospital and a 14-bed critical care unit that has easily accessible extension area to cohort Covid-19 patients. There is a dedicated 4 theatre day surgery unit with an excellent paediatric area.

Ipswich is a regional tertiary referral centre for spinal surgery and gynaeoncology which presents many training opportunities for managing complex cases.

Colchester Hospital

The anaesthetics team at Colchester hospital is made up of a dedicated team of consultants, SAS doctors, higher speciality and core trainees.

The anaesthetics team provide a service for all medical and surgical specialities within the hospital including emergency and elective obstetrics and an acute pain service.

A typical day for a trainee starts at 07:30 with pre-assessment of patients for theatre. There is also a morning MDT meeting with the theatre team. Trainees report excellent opportunities in intraoperative patient management and post-operative pain management.

The anaesthetic department is friendly and extremely supportive. There is a lot of hands-on teaching and learning, both in and out of the theatre environment.

Training Opportunities

There are excellent training opportunities for upper/lower GI, urology, ENT, gynae-oncology, obstetrics, orthopaedics, complex spinal surgery, trauma and regional anaesthesia. There is also an excellent acute pain service.

Orthopaedics, trauma and spines:

Ipswich is a regional tertiary referral centre for spinal surgery, with 2 lists per day and a wide variety of interesting spinal operating including posterior cervical surgery, ALIF/XLIF and scoliosis surgery.

ENT, oral surgery:

There are plenty of training opportunities for difficult airway management in oral surgery. Techniques used include jet ventilation, videolaryngoscopes and fibre-optic airway management.

Lower GI & Urology: Ipswich and Colchester perform major lower GI surgery and nephrectomies as well as adrenalectomy procedures. We have recently started using robotics for lower GI and gynaeoncology surgery.

Regional anaesthesia and acute pain service:

The anaesthetics team are keen on using regional anaesthesia offering plenty of upper and lower limb block opportunities. The acute pain team site erector spinae catheters for patients with rib fractures. Recuts sheath catheters are used for the majority of laparotomy patients.

Obstetrics & Gynae-oncology: Ipswich is the tertiary referral centre for gynae-oncology which presents many opportunities for managing complex patients and major haemorrhage. They also have approximately 4000 deliveries per year with a 23% LSCS rate.

Day Surgery:

Ipswich treat approximately 5,000 adult and paediatric patients per year, undergoing surgical and investigative procedures requiring local, regional and general anaesthesia. There are a large number of paediatric patients (approx. 1200 per year) between the ages of 1 year and 16 years operated on in this area.