About Anaesthetic Pre-operative Assessment

At Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), we are a team of healthcare professionals who work closely with anaesthetic doctors at the hospital to ensure that children, young people, and their families are prepared for their elective procedure or investigation under general anaesthetic.

We are located by the main entrance at the front of the hospital, next to Cheetah Outpatients.

Level 2, Variety Club Building, Anaesthetic Pre-Assessment Clinic
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children
Great Ormond Street
London
WC1N 3JH

An Anaesthetic Pre-Operative Assessment can take up to 30 minutes.

The aim of the assessment is to ensure that children and young people are prepared for their procedure or operation from both a clinical and a psychological perspective.

We will complete a clinical assessment, including taking a medical history. We will also discuss your planned admission, general anaesthesia and any pre/post-operative plans we think are indicated.

You will be seen by an appropriately trained Health Care Worker, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Operating Department Practitioner (ODP) or Consultant Anaesthetist. Your APOA appointment will either be in clinic face to face, or virtually by video assessment or a telephone call. The APOA clinical team will decide on the most appropriate appointment type for the patient. Please note, if you are booked for a video assessment, it is essential that your child is present for the appointment.

Sometimes we will need to arrange pre-admission investigations to ensure the doctors have everything they need on the day of the procedure. These investigations may need to be arranged after your APOA appointment; our team will coordinate an appropriate time with you.

Common investigations include Blood tests, heart scans and sleep studies.

Ensuring that our patients and families are prepared for their admission is extremely important to us. We work closely with the Play team and are lucky to have a Play Specialist based in APOA to help prepare children and young people for general anaesthesia.

We also work closely with the learning disability team to ensure any reasonable adjustments that might be required are arranged for the admission.

Please take the opportunity during your APOA appointment to ask any questions or raise any concerns that you might have about the admission, and we will do our best to help.