Southmead Hospital
Southmead Hospital, Bristol is part of the North Bristol NHS Trust. We are the largest hospital trust in the SouthWest of England, providing 800 inpatient beds and community healthcare to the 900,000 residents of Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and North Somerset. We host the Severn Major Trauma Network and the SouthWest and Wales Burns Network. Southmead also provides specialised services for Interventional radiology, Neuroscience (Neurosurgery, Neurology and Stroke), Complex Spinal and Pelvic Surgery, Complex Trauma and Orthopaedics (including orthoplastics and major revision joint replacements), Vascular surgery (including endovascular), Breast surgery and reconstruction, Bariatric Surgery, Robotic surgery, and Renal Transplant services.
The Southmead Hospital site contains the Brunel building, the Women and Children’s quarter, a Science Quarter, Limes Quarter and Gloucester House. The Brunel building opened in May 2014 and houses most of the inpatient and outpatient services, including a large emergency department, intensive care unit and theatre complex. The theatre complex is split over 2 floors and has 24 operating theatres. However, anaesthesia is also delivered in other areas such as interventional radiology, MRI and endoscopy. The intensive care unit has 46 beds open and is arranged over 4 ‘pods’ of 12 beds. There are 2 additional room used for simulation.
The Women and Children’s quarter, opposite the Brunel Building, contains NICU, and the Obstetric and Gynaecology services. The Gynaecology unit contains a state-of-the-art new theatre complex which opened in 2021. The Central Delivery Suite is one of the largest in the UK with approximately 6500 deliveries (including abnormally invasive placenta), 1100 Caesarean sections and 1500 epidurals annually.
The Science Quarter hosts the Severn Pathology Service, including the antibiotic reference laboratory, as well as the Learning and Resource Centre. The Learning and Resource centre contains state of the art education facilities including Simulation suite and clinical skills laboratory. It is also the research hub for Trust and contains an excellent library.
The Pain Management Service is based in Gloucester House. A well-established chronic pain service which offers experience in multidisciplinary approaches, neuromodulation and interventional pain procedures. The acute pain service is in the main anaesthetic department in the Brunel building. This service is supported by a team of consultants and specialist nurses.
The anaesthetic department is part of the Anaesthetic, Critical Care, Surgery and Renal Directorate (ASCR) and now has around 90 consultants, 8 Specialty doctors and Associate Specialists and around 50 Anaesthetists in training and clinical fellows:
4 Novice ACCS doctors
10-12 Stage 1 doctors
15-17 Stage 2 doctors
15 Stage 3 doctors
2 CESR fellows (Stage 2-3)
Training is tailored to accommodate individual requirements and can include all specialties available on site: Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Urology and transplant, Plastics, Orthopaedics, Spinal Surgery, General surgery, Neurosurgery, Vascular, Burns and Intensive Care Medicine. This includes the ability to undertake subspecialty training in neuroanaesthesia, regional anaesthesia training supported by a daily designated ‘block consultant’ and a week of designated pain or perioperative medicine experience. We also offer SIA modules in regional anaesthesia, trauma, vascular, bariatrics, pain, obstetrics, neuroanaesthesia , perioperative medicine and ICM.
As a large tertiary centre, a large component of our work is urgent/emergency operating either in main theatres or obstetrics. We have 4 tiers of on call, all 1:8 rotas working 12 hours shifts; 1st and 2nd on call cover main theatres, an Obstetric on call anaesthetist and a 3rd on call anaesthetist who supports both the main theatre and obstetric on call, as well as carrying the trauma bleep. The anaesthetic on calls are busy, but well supported by 2 consultants on call who are happy to be contacted for help. At the weekends there are also a further 3 consultants running additional emergency lists during the day for trauma, plastics and stroke services. Intensive care runs a separate on call rota with 2 tiers of on call doctors in training (one doctor per ‘pod’ and 2 registrars) with some advanced ICM trainee additional cover, supported by 3 consultants on call out of hours.
With the introduction of the generic professional capabilities within the RCOA Curriculum, there are also opportunities within the department to develop these areas during EDT time, including participating in research, QI and audit projects, and education projects, such as simulation or MDT training under consultant supervision. There is a busy departmental teaching programme which doctors in training are encouraged to attend including:
- NBTeach (3x week educational sessions at 11am on Tues/Wed/Thurs),
- EMTS (early morning teaching sessions on alternative days each month supported by late theatre starts)
- ‘Tea Trolley’ teaching
- Block Club – regional anaesthesia training sessions
- Primary and Final FRCA SOE practice
- Basic Science – Weekly tutorials by Mark Dirnhuber
- Novice training programme
The department has 2 TELs (trainee education leads) who help to deliver this programme, supported by a consultant supervisor. The department is supportive of educational opportunities, including attendance at regional study days, please do get your rota requests in early to ensure they can be accommodated in the rota.
Before arrival at NBT you should be contacted by the team 10 weeks before you start. If you have not heard from us, please do get in touch via the emails below:
College Tutors: AnaestheticCollegeTutorsNBT@nbt.nhs.uk
Rota Coordinator: Dr David Agombar: David.agombar@nbt.nhs.uk
Secretaries: AnaestheticSecretaries-NBT@nbt.nhs.uk
Anaesthetic Department: Office 1, Gate 38, Level 3 Brunel Building,
Southmead Hospital, Bristol, BS10 5NB.
Telephone: 0117 4145114
You can access the hospital website at https://www.nbt.nhs.uk/our-hospitals/southmead-hospital