Patient Information

The Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) have produced leaflets and many other resources to help you deliver information that patients need as they prepare for an anaesthetic.

The resources have been developed for use in hospitals, in particular by preoperative assessment teams, but also to be accessible directly by patients and their relatives.

The patient information produced by the RCoA is certified by the PIF Trusted Information Creator Kitemark accreditation scheme run by Patient Information Forum (PIF) for measuring the quality of health information.

Our resources can be printed out for individual patients as required. Many hospitals print their most commonly used resources professionally as cheaper to do this in bulk. Please see information on how to do this here.

Visit the RCoA website here

The Patient Information Group of the RCoA has updated its risk information series on the risks associated with general anaesthesia.

Working in collaboration with the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication and patient representatives, the new toolkit uses the latest evidence based approach for presenting risk to patients in the most accessible way.

The toolkit consists of interactive infographics to be viewed online, including on mobiles and tablets. There are also traditional leaflets and printable PDFs for those who are digitally excluded.

Find out more here

You and your anaesthetic

You and Your anaesthetic is their most widely used leaflet explaining anaesthesia and what to expect when having an operation. This leaflet contains electronic links to most of our other main resources.

Download

Anaesthesia explained

Anaesthesia Explained is an online resource that explains anaesthesia and the perioperative pathway in much more depth. It is not suitable for printing.

Download

Preparing for surgery – Fitter Better Sooner

The RCoA have developed a toolkit which provides important information on how patients can improve their physical and mental health in order to become fitter, better prepared for their operation and improve their chances of a straightforward recovery.

The toolkit includes a main leaflet, procedure-specific leaflets covering some of the most common operations in the UK (cataract surgery, hysteroscopy, cystoscopy, hernia, knee arthroscopy and total knee replacement. Importantly there is also an animation which is widely used for showing on screens in waiting rooms or on portable electronic devices.

Visit Toolkit page Download leaflet Watch animation

Leaflet translations

The RCoA is working in partnership with the international translation charity Translators without Borders (TwB) to provide translations of our most popular patient information leaflets in the 20 most common languages used in the UK, including Welsh. TwB is a non-profit organisation offering language and translation support for humanitarian and development agencies, and other non-profit organisations on a global scale.