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Background and Aims The 2021 curriculum for anaesthetists in training in the United Kingdom recognises the importance of regional anaesthesia. All anaesthetists in training are now expected to be able to perform regional anaesthesia to the abdominal wall, chest wall, lower limb and upper limb independently by the end of their training . The Regional Anaesthesia UK (RA-UK) Plan A blocks documents provide a framework for regional anaesthetic techniques covering each region of the body. We wanted to assess the readiness of our department to be able to perform and/or teach these skills.

Methods We designed an anonymous questionnaire to assess the readiness of permanent staff members within our department to perform and teach each technique listed in the RA-UK plan A blocks, including catheter techniques.

Results 62 responses were received. Of these, 47 were from consultants or locally employed doctors who would be expected to supervise trainees during their daily work. Table 1 demonstrates that, In our institution we identified a high proportion of permanent staff members able to teach the upper and lower limb plan A blocks, but a much lower confidence level with trunk blocks.

Conclusions This survey demonstrates the need to focus on training of the permanent staff body in plan A trunk blocks in particular before we can reliably teach anaesthetists in training. 92% respondents felt future departmental teaching/sessions on scanning and teaching on Plan A blocks would be helpful for their development, including the use of perineural/fascial plane catheter techniques.

Attachment Plan A blocks abstract.pdf