Preoperative outpatient consultation in private anaesthetic practice

To assess the value of preoperative anaesthetic consultations done on an outpatient basis, questionnaires were sent to 150 consecutive private patients who had been seen during the previous six months. Replies were received from 72%, and of these, 88% found the visit to be beneficial, whilst 2% were critical of the practice. Twenty-three percent did not know that anaesthetists were medically qualified. A retrospective audit of a further 100 patients revealed that 52% of patients had had their preoperative management altered to some degree as a consequence of the appointment. Based on his own experiences and the comments received from patients, the author believes this practice should be more widespread.