General anaesthesia in accident and emergency departments

Potential problems with the provision of general anaesthesia in accident and emergency (A&E) departments were investigated by sending consultants in A&E a postal questionnaire asking for their views on the quality of the anaesthetic service available to their department. Of the 129 consultants replying, 31% had problems in obtaining an anaesthetist, 17% thought the first on-call anaesthetist was too inexperienced and 5% had experienced various other problems. Overall, 20% were unhappy with the service.