Before your operation/surgery (pre-op)

When it has been decided that you require surgery you will be sent a health screening questionnaire by text or email.

This questionnaire provides the clinical teams with more information about you and your overall health. This information will be used to help ensure that you attend the correct type of pre-operative assessment clinic and that your overall health is the best it can be prior to surgery.

Completing this questionnaire will ensure your surgery can go ahead and that you can recover as quickly as possible afterwards. To ensure that all of the information we have about you is up to date, we will send you a new form every three months to notify us if anything has changed with your current health.

Please don’t worry if you are unable to complete this form yourself - your care will not be impacted. You will be contacted by a member of staff to complete the form with you over the telephone.

A pre-op assessment appointment assesses your general health and fitness before an operation. You will be seen in clinic or called on your phone by one of our pre-operative nurses, having received prior notification about your appointment date and time by a letter, phone call or text message. Please remember to enable you to be seen as quickly as possible you may be offered an appointment at any of our four hospitals, and where you have your pre-op may not be the same place where you have your operation. 

The nurse will ask you about your medical history, medication that you take, previous surgery and any anaesthetics you may have had.

You will have the opportunity to ask any questions and discuss any worries or concerns you may have.
The pre-operative nurse will arrange any tests that you may need before surgery.

If you have a more complex medical history, you may need to be seen in clinic by a consultant anaesthetist. This will be explained by your pre-operative nurse. 

Why is pre-operative assessment important?

It is important that we know as much as possible about your general health before you have an anaesthetic to help us prepare you safely for this.

We can identify risks, if any, and consider ways that we can reduce these. For some health conditions we may refer you on to see another specialist if we think that this will make your perioperative care safer.