Anaesthetic Services
The Magill Department of Anaesthesia provides a comprehensive and extensive service to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. The department is named after one of the pioneers of modern anaesthesia—Ivan Magill—who worked at the Westminster Hospital. Not only is anaesthesia provided for patients having operations in Main Theatres and the Treatment Centre, but we also provide anaesthesia to other departments, including:
- Obstetrics
- Children’s Anaesthetics
- Burns
- Weight loss surgery
- Endoscopy
- Cardiology
- X-ray
- CT/MRI
- ECT
- Pain Management Services
- Anaesthetists also assess patients before their operations in the Preoperative Assessment Clinic.
Anaesthesia is provided to patients from the Royal Marsden and Royal Brompton Hospitals who come to Chelsea and Westminster for X-ray procedures. We have more than 30 consultants and 32 trainee anaesthetists.
The 9-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is run by anaesthetists and is one of most up-to-date units in the UK. The ICU is covered 24 hours per day by a consultant and accepts patients both locally and outside the area, as well as patients who have undergone major surgery. The ICU has won several Charter Mark Awards for Excellence.
Anaesthetists also look after the Burns Unit ITU and a 24 hour per day anaesthetic service is provided for major burns patients. We are a tertiary referral centre for burns patients.
Anaesthesia is provided in the Endoscopy Unit as well as in MRI and CT for adults and children who are unable to cope with examinations unless they are anaesthetised.
Anaesthesia is provided for a full range of child, infant and neonatal patients. These children’s operations are carried out in discrete children’s theatres. The patients are looked after by a specialised dedicated team of anaesthetists who provide a service day and night.
Anaesthesia is also provided for weight loss procedures in Main Theatres such as gastric bypasses and insertions of gastric bands. There are 4 consultant surgeons who specialise in weight loss surgery and Chelsea and Westminster is a major referral centre for this type of surgery. These patients have their own specialist recovery area.
The Chronic Pain Service have a twice-weekly operating lists in the Treatment Centre where patients have difficult procedures under general anaesthesia.
The anaesthetic department provides a twice-weekly all day consultant-led Preoperative Assessment Clinic for patients who need to be seen by an anaesthetist prior to their surgery. The service is invaluable because if the patients have a problematic medical history we refer them in-house to whatever specialist they need to see.
We are a centre of excellence for obstetric anaesthesia and are held in high esteem nationally and internationally. Our team of expert obstetric anaesthetic consultants leads a group delivering high quality of care to women at all stages in their pregnancies. We cater for high risk patients which includes the care of patients from the Royal Brompton Hospital. We are a centre for training and research in obstetric anaesthesia, although much of our work is in providing routine anaesthesia and pain relief during childbirth.
Patient leaflets
Medical procedure videos
The following videos are trailers for DVDs available for purchase through Training for Innovation (TFI).
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General Anaesthetic |
Spinal Anaesthetic |
