How can I prepare for my pre-assessment?
It is useful to have some information to hand before you complete your questionnaire or have your phone call with a member of the pre-assessment team. This could include a list of your medications, your previous medical history and any speciality teams that look after you with dates of previous appointments e.g. cardiology or respiratory teams. This will speed up the process of the pre-assessment and ensure all the information is recorded correctly and in a timely fashion.
It is important that you attend your appointments to avoid risk of cancellations on admission and wasted theatre slots.
Patients who are not currently fit for surgery, but could be after some adjustments to their treatments or lifestyle are also identified and supported. This process generally helps to make the provision of elective surgery more efficient.
We may also provide you with written information if it is available about your planned operation. Please inform us on the contact numbers below if you require information in large print, easy to read copies or in a different language.
Depending on your health and fitness, the assessment process can take up differing times and this will depend on the assessment of the returned text form or the telephone call with a pre-assessment nurse. We would recommend allowing 1 hour to complete the text form and 1 hour for the telephone with the pre-assessment nurse. Your clinical test appointment can differ from 10 to 40 minutes, depending on the particular tests that need completing so please make sure that you allow enough time in your day for these to happen.
Depending on the type of surgery you are having and your past medical history, you may be required to see a pre-assessment anaesthetist before surgery and this will be arranged by the pre-assessment department. This appointment can also take up to an hour so please be mindful of this and allow time, especially when paying for parking.
The outcome of your assessment
Once you are assessed as safe to proceed with your procedure your name will be added to the Active Waiting List. You may have already been given a date for your surgery.
Occasionally some patients may require more tests, some test results may register as abnormal, in which case your name would not be added to the Active Waiting List.
In these circumstances you will be asked to return to your general practitioner (GP) for the problem to be investigated and treated. Some problems can be investigated and treated in a much shorter space of time and in these circumstances we allow three weeks for the problem to be treated and your name would then be added to the Active Waiting List.