To: Hip Fracture Anaesthesia Network

Dear network colleagues, www.networks.nhs.uk/hipfractureanaesthesia

I hope you will have time to read this, the first Newsletter of the network; hopefully it will be a monthly event.

I had a very fruitful meeting recently, in the glamorous location of Starbuck’s in Leicester with the two people who make NHS Networks happen, Krishna Patel and Jass Tatter.

They have confirmed that the network will soon have the technical ability to conduct surveys, via NHS Networks; this should enable members to conduct some useful audit and service evaluation. I suggest that all survey requests should go through Stu White ([email protected]) in Brighton and that just one is done at a time, otherwise we could all get a dose of “surveyitis.”

The Age Anaesthesia meeting will take place in Leicester next May 6 and 7. The network will be able to meet during the one and a half days of the meeting. The programme for Leicester is almost complete, when finalised I will let you all know the contents.

I have also posted a membership application form on the network site for Age Anaesthesia, at £10 a year it is worth it.

I want the network to become interactive and I hope that most of you can spend some time using the discussion forum. Here’s the address again, in case you haven’t yet saved it to your favourites list, http://www.networks.nhs.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=140. Please do remember you need to be logged in to view and comment as it’s a private forum. If you have any difficulties remembering your username or password please give Jass a holler, [email protected].

Thanks to all of you who have collected some audit data, especially surgical time and blood loss data. You can collect any month, even starting now; a spreadsheet can be found on the network site for you to download. Please send results to myself ([email protected]), Kirsty Forrest ([email protected]) or Stu White ([email protected]).

With best wishes,

Richard Network Lead, Hip Fracture Anaesthesia Network