The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain & Ireland (AAGOD published recommendations for Standards of Monitoring during Anaesthesia and Recovery in July, 1988. This was followed by a long debate in the fall at the Association’s Linkman Meeting attended by delegates from all over the British Isles. This annual meeting acts as a forum for an exchange of views between member anesthesiologists and the Association’s officers.

Strong support was expressed for the document. This will strengthen anesthesiologists’ requests to senior hospital management for the provision of sufficient monitoring equipment to permit the concept of safe monitoring which has been termed by many a far more satisfactory term than minimal monitoring Anesthesiology has been grossly underfunded in the British Isles and insufficient resources are available to the specialty for provision of monitoring equipment. It is not generally recognized that the cost of M monitoring when calculated on a per patient basis can be really very low.

The Working Party which produced the document consisted of eight members of the AAGBI Council (including the President and the President-elect) under the Chairmanship of Professor Anthony P. Adams of Guy’s Hospital. Professor Keith Sykes the Consultant Advisor to the Department of Health was also a member.