Patient safety

Your safety during surgery is the priority during any procedure. A full history and examination is undertaken at initial consultation and a medical screen including blood tests may be requested if necessary. It is important to provide a full history of current medication, herbal and alternative remedies and cigarette smoking since all of these factors may influence the complication rates following surgery.

There is a trend towards many smaller ‘clinics’ and non­-surgically trained practitioners to offer many procedures being awake under local anaesthetic. The reason for this is that either the clinics do not have the necessary facilities for general anaesthetics or the practitioners are insufficiently trained and are attempting to cut costs whilst compromising patient safety. Although a local anaesthetic may be suitable for some smaller operations it is not advisable for larger operations since the doses of local anaesthetic required may be toxic. In many situations sedation is administered together with the local anaesthetic at such high doses that there is little difference between a general anaesthetic. In these situations a Consultant Anaesthetist must be present during the procedure and many Consultants would maintain that it is in fact safer to be completely asleep under a general anaesthetic. Mr Chana will not compromise on the safety of the procedure and will recommend the correct form of anaesthesia for every procedure.