ACSA publishes its 2020-2021 Annual Review

The 2020-2021 ACSA Annual Review reflects on the work of the ACSA scheme in an unprecedented year in which the team did not allow ACSA to stand still but continued to engage with anaesthetic departments to support, advise and accredit them on their ACSA journey. They have managed to do this in a way that has reflected the competing demands on clinical staff with the various waves of the pandemic.

In the past 18 months, the ACSA team have achieved:

• a successful ACSA portal launch
• accredited 41 anaesthetic departments: an increase of nine newly accredited and three re-accredited
• published 2021 standards, these include four new standards on relating to the care of patients with tracheostomies and supporting those in clinical leadership roles
• maintained high engagement levels with nine newly registered departments taking our total to 122 registered departments which equates to 74 per cent of departments in the UK
• successfully facilitated remote review sessions.

Dr Russell Perkins, ACSA Clinical Lead said:

“No one reading this Anaesthesia Clinical Services Accreditation (ACSA) annual review of 2020–2021 needs me to remind them how difficult it has been to continue with our normal working lives over the last 18 months. Obviously, that is easy to recognise for those that deliver healthcare, but it is equally true for colleagues who support us in our desire to improve the quality of that care. I pay tribute to the indefatigable spirit, dedication and professionalism of the staff at the College and in particular the clinical quality team.”