Module Details: The Walton Centre is a stand-alone tertiary neuroscience centre, located in the north of Liverpool. The large catchment area and scope of services offered provide anaesthetic trainees with the opportunity to achieve all competencies needed in advanced Neuroanaesthesia and Neurocritical care. The Neurosurgical department in the Walton Centre provides care for a wide range of intracranial pathologies, in Oncology, Vascular, Functional and movement disorders. It has in recent years been performing an ever-increasing array of procedures for spinal pathologies, ranging from microdiscectomies to scoliosis correction. The trauma collaborative with the Liverpool University Hospital (Aintree site) provides the opportunity for managing complex polytrauma cases. The Chronic Pain department undertakes a wide range of interventions under Local and General Anaesthesia. The scope of these procedures will enable the advanced anaesthetic trainee to gain expertise in a wide range of transferable skills – including but not limited to expert management of patients with raised intracranial pressure, intraoperative hypotension, anaesthesia in prone and other non-standard positions, sometimes for very long periods, anaesthesia in the presence of neurophysiological monitoring, one lung anaesthesia, anaesthesia for interventional procedures and MRI(including intraoperative), monitored sedation (including in patients with learning difficulties and cognitive impairment) and a range of regional blocks. The 20-bedded (expandable to 22) critical care unit provides support for all the above, in addition to a wide range of neurology and complex long-term cases providing opportunity to gain expertise in, for example, the management of complex and intractable seizures and difficult ventilatory weaning. Neurointensive care creates unique opportunities to become in skilled in communication in difficult and challenging circumstances. There is an active protected trainee led teaching programme as well as monthly department meetings all of which provide ample teaching and presentation opportunities for trainees. There are also multiple opportunities for audits service improvement projects and, increasingly, research opportunities.
