Northampton General Hospital is a busy 600 bed DGH serving a local population of 380,000. It also provides hyperacute stroke, vascular and renal for the whole of Northamptonshire (684,000) and some cancer services for an even wider population of 880,000. The quality of our services and use of resources was rated ‘good’ by CQC in 2010.

There are 18 operating theatres, of which six are in the main theatre suite, four are orthopaedic, two gynaecology, two obstetric, three day surgery and one ophthalmic. There is also a day surgery theatre at Daventry Hospital. The surgical specialties covered include general, orthopaedic and trauma, gynaecology (including tertiary level gynae- oncology), urology, plastics, dental, maxillofacial (including major head and neck), ENT, ophthalmic, major vascular and obstetrics. The labour suite manages 4,500 deliveries per year. Anaesthesia is also provided on the children’s ward for oncology procedures, in cardiology for implantable defibrillators, and at Berrywood for ECT.

The anaesthetic department consists of 34 consultants and six non consultant career grade staff, with trainees rotating from Leicester.

Teaching and training is a high priority. The department runs an annual national Primary Exam Course every April, and three consultant staff are Primary FRCA Examiners. There are Fellowships offered in Regional anaesthesia and Difficult Airway management.

Departmental meetings take place every Friday afternoon and the varied programme includes M&M meetings, audits, clinical updates, simulation sessions and mandatory training. There is an up to date medical library and a new simulation suite which opened in 2011.