Citation

Scott DHT. Anaesthesia 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/anae.15547

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The authors are to be congratulated on the publication of fire safety and emergency evacuation guidelines [1], a comprehensive document that gives much sound advice about the prevention and management of such events. Having worked in anaesthesia before oxygen pipelines were universal, it was stressed that anaesthetised patients must always have two sources of oxygen available, in case of failure of one of them. Before the introduction of pipelines, this involved two oxygen cylinders on every machine. With the introduction of piped oxygen, one cylinder was enough, as long as the unused yoke had a blank inserted. As intensive care developed, it seemed just as important to provide an oxygen cylinder at the bedside of all oxygen-dependent patients, and that was what happened in the areas under our control. Oxygen pipeline failure is not common but when it happens it is catastrophic. I have concerns about the recommendations in the guidelines that oxygen cylinders should be kept in a separate store and have to be fetched from there if there is an emergency. I believe that oxygen cylinders must be kept at the patient's bedside in ICUs, in operating theatres and on wards. This is not only for fire evacuation and for the much more common disaster of oxygen pipeline failure, but also because most of these patients need cylinder oxygen whenever they are being moved. We have had several discussions with fire officers about this over the years. I always ended up agreeing that the cylinders at the bedside were not being stored...

Keywords: Pipeline transportation

Language: en