‘Survivability’
Technological developments enable patients to be kept alive for longer than they may have lived in the past. There are improvements in stroke management and the care of premature babies, saving more lives and enabling more babies to live into adulthood. This creates more demand for anaesthetists and intensivists both in the short term in terms of providing these life-saving services, and in the long term as these surviving patients go on to require further treatment throughout their lives or later in life, as with other patients. New techniques of providing anaesthesia such as computerised delivery and monitoring systems also free up time.
Proposed workforce impact
- Complex cases have workforce implications in terms of time and skills and so more generalist skills may be required.
- How do doctors develop skills to use new technologies while doing their day jobs?
Sources or references
Additional research questions
- Are these services affordable?
- Will a two-tier system develop to provide new technologies (including drugs and interventions)?
Some of the information in this section is provided by stakeholders and expert groups, and does not necessarily represent the views of the CfWI.
