AAGBI Statement

UPDATE: Further to the statement below, we have been notified that there IS a manufacturer of the new safer devices up and running in the UK.  Clearly we cannot advertise but details are available through the AAGBI.

The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain & Ireland (AAGBI) is pleased to endorse the Patient Safety Alerts on safer devices for Spinal, Epidural and Regional anaesthesia issued today by the National Patient Safety Agency.

AAGBI has been actively involved over the last six months in the development of these Alerts and was represented on the NPSA External Reference Group by Dr Andrew Hartle, Chairman of the AAGBI Safety Committee.

The External Reference Group was chaired by Professor Brian Toft, also a member of the AAGBI Safety Committee.  Professor Toft first made the recommendation that a technical solution to the problem of misconnection be developed nearly ten years ago, and we are delighted that this initiative has been launched at last.

It is regrettable that no such safer devices are currently available commercially, and that it will take several years before a single International Standard is available.  As Andrew Hartle and colleagues wrote in this month’s Anaesthesia News 

            “The ideal solution would be the rapid development of a single international standard for each problem, without intellectual property rights, approved and supported by clinicians, which all manufacturers could adopt and bring into production and which would be fully clinically evaluated before distribution. The solution would have little increased cost. Ideal solutions rarely happen!”

In the absence of an ideal solution, AAGBI considers this Purchasing for Safety initiative to be the best compromise to address this rare but important safety concern.  Patient Safety is always the first priority of anaesthetists and the AAGBI.

The timetables for implementation are tight; it is vital that anaesthetists engage locally within hospitals, and with industry to ensure that the devices produced and used are “fit for purpose” and do not bring with them any unforeseen consequences.

Dr Richard Birks
President

November 2009

> Download a copy of the NPSA Press release (England)

> Download a copy of the NPSA Press release (Wales)

For further information please contact Claire Elliott, Communications Officer, 020 7631 8817, press@aagbi.org