"Back to the Future: How Past Experiences have Shaped our Future"

We hosted another fantastic event at the Spine in Liverpool. We had a packed audience in both the lecture theatre, and the poster/ trades room!

 

The day started off with Dr Brian Johnston winning us all over with the advantages and disadvantages of wearable devices for our patients, and the health benefits that it will bring them. Professor Cliff Shelton followed with a fascinating talk about updates within sustainability, well done to everyone who has managed to reduce the anaesthetic and inhaler emissions portion of the NHS Carbon Footprint Plus from 5 to 3%. Understandably there’s still a long way to go. Next, we had Dr Akeeban Maheswaran educate us as to the economics of the NHS, alongside giving us insights as to what the future holds.

 

After the morning break, Dr Sethina Watson revealed the GMC statistics of reducing numbers of black resident doctors in anaesthesia, alongside the lower success rates at interviews and ARCPs. She also showed us how we can all help to improve this. Professor Patrice Forget followed and delighted us with us his passion and techniques for not only opioid free anaesthesia, but also an opioid free future.  

 

After a tasty lunch, Dr Sarah White shared a very difficult in the middle of the night eFONA case, and from this learning, the fantastic new high-fidelity simulation for eFONA training that was implemented. Dr Maria Safar added to this education with a different take on how to manage the airways of patients with neck haematomas, cut the sutures!

 

Next, we had a panel discussion led by Dr Richard Craig with Dr Nicole Robin, Dr Beth Perritt, Dr Will Gauntlett and Dr Alicia Waite. They each revealed personal stories highlighting the importance of humanity, communication, and situational awareness on the ICU, alongside the importance of human factors and external stressors on you in the workplace. Thank you to everyone in this afternoon session for being so honest with us, so that we can learn from you too.

 

The last session of the day was started off by Dr Tom Houston providing us with some key updates in anaesthesia over the last year, particularly over GLP-1RAs. Followed by Dr Rebecca Jones revealing the outcomes from key studies over the last year in ICM, perhaps we should all be better at targeting a conservative FiO2 during anaesthesia.

 

The eagerly awaited Poster Prize Competition was concluded with Dr Charlotte Woodward being the runner up for her poster ‘Processing Memories of ICU: Creating Illustrations for patient diaries in collaboration with Cheshire & Mersey ICU Steps group’. Dr Ellie Tanqueray and Dr Tom Houston won with ‘Preparing for Obstetric Airway Emergencies through Simulation Training’. Well done to everyone who took part. The day concluded with a lively drinks reception, bringing another great day of education alongside catching up with colleagues and friends to a close.