• C M Ducat, A F Merry, and C S Webster.
• Department of Anaesthesia, Green Lane Hospital and Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
• Anaesth Intensive Care. 2000 Dec 1;28(6):692-7.

AbstractA postal survey of anaesthetists practising in New Zealand assessed practices with regard to the preparation of pre-drawn syringes of emergency drugs in theatre, and attitudes towards the drawing up of drugs by non-medically qualified assistants. Opinion and practice varied widely; a quarter of respondents routinely draw up such drugs and a third either never or very infrequently do so. The drugs most commonly drawn up in this way were suxamethonium, atropine, syntocinon, ephedrine and metaraminol. Providing anaesthesia single-handed, anaesthesia involving paediatric, obstetric or vascular cases, the use of major regional techniques and laryngeal mask anaesthesia were reported as factors which prompted a number of respondents to draw up one or more of these drugs. The majority (68.5%) had received no teaching on the issue and nearly all (83.5%) reported that there was no institutional policy in their workplace(s). "Syringe swap" or "wrong drug" errors related to such pre-drawn drugs were reported by 26.5%, while delay in drawing up a drug in an emergency was reported by 37%. Nearly all (98%) respondents believed that it was acceptable for an anaesthetic technician (or similar assistant) to draw up drugs in an emergency but only 14% approved of assistants drawing up drugs routinely. We conclude that there is no uniformity of opinion amongst New Zealand anaesthetists about which if any drugs should be pre-drawn for possible emergency use, and that few would endorse the drawing up of drugs by non-medically qualified assistants, except in emergency, or under other clearly delineated circumstances.

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