ANÆSTHETIC TECHNIQUE EMPLOYED IN TWO AUSTRALIAN TEACHING HOSPITALS
Abstract
Senior Honorary Ancesthetist, Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. and GEOFFREY KAYE, M.D. Honorary Ancesthetist, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. HpHis report describes the routine anaesthetic practice in â¢*⢠two teaching hospitals in Melbourne, Australia. They are general hospitals, the largest in Melbourne, each containing over two hundred and thirty surgical beds. Both employ very similar anaesthetic methods, which may be taken as fairly representative of Australian anaesthetic practice. In each hospital, there are a number of surgical teams comprised of an honorary surgeon, an honorary assistant-surgeon, a house-surgeon and an honorary anaesthetist or honorary assistant-anaesthetist. Each team usually operates on two half-days weekly, anaesthetics being administered by the honorary anaesthetist or by house-anaesthetists working under his supervision. In the absence of the honorary anaesthetist, a house-anaesthetist acts as his deputy in minor cases, whilst, in major cases, a resident anaesthetist of greater seniority is available. I. Status of Honorary Anesthetists. In one hospital, honorary anaesthetists are full members of the Hospital Staff and are entitled to vote at Staff meetings. At the other hospital, they are merely represented on the Staff by one of their number. Honorary assistant-anaesthetists are not members of the Staff. In the first-mentioned hospital, there are four