The Department of Anesthesia at St. Paul's Hospital and Mt. St. Joseph's Hospital is a full service department with 34 full and part-time members. All our anesthesiologists are board certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Canada and many have additional subspecialty training. We provide perioperative services to almost 21,000 patients per year and to several thousand more patients who do not come to our operating rooms.

Our role as anesthesiologists often begins in the pre-assessment clinic where we meet with patients to ensure that they are medically optimized for surgery and to address any concerns patients may have. As perioperative physicians it is our area of specialty to assess patients as to their suitability for a particular surgical procedure and to arrange for any tests or consultations that may be required before surgery. We welcome patients bringing forward any questions they may have at this point so that we can make the surgical process as smooth and comfortable as possible.

The providence department of Anesthesiology has many areas of subspecialty interest and expertise including; cardiac anesthesiology, perioperative transesophageal echocardiography, chronic pain, high risk obstetrical and regional anesthesiology. As the Heart Centre for BC almost 1,000 open-heart surgical cases were performed including coronary artery bypass grafts, valvular surgery and lead extractions. Our department provided care for 23 heart transplants in the last year and also ensure optimal anesthesiology for transapical and transcatheter valve replacements. Our anesthesiologists providing transesophageal echocardiography are providing real time imaging to help guide patient care in the cardiac surgical cases.

With a busy orthopedic service doing almost 2,000 cases last year our anesthesiologists specializing in regional anesthesia (nerve blocks) have been able to provide optimal patient comfort on a regular basis. They are expert at the most up-to-date ultrasound guided nerve blocks using the most modern ultrasound machines enhancing safety and efficacy.

We have a busy obstetrical anesthesiology service providing labor analgesia with patient controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) and anesthetics for C-Section.

In summary, our anesthesiologists are highly trained professionals who provide the highest level of patient care to a wide variety of patients for many types of surgery. Any questions or enquiries may be directed to our department.