Welcome to the
Magill Department of Anaesthesia, Intensive Care & Pain Management

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Sir Ivan Whiteside Magill (1888-1986)

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at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, UK

This site has no flashing lights or fancy graphics and is maintained by:

Dr. S.M. Yentis

Magill Department of Anaesthesia, Intensive Care & Pain Management

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital

369 Fulham Road

London SW10 9NH, UK

Last updated: June 2008

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital was offically opened by Queen Elizabeth II in May 1993. The hospital replaced the Westminster, St Stephen’s, St Mary Abbot’s, Westminster Children’s and West London Hospitals. It provides care for people living in Chelsea and Kensington, as well as parts of Westminster, Fulham, Battersea and Wandsworth. Before becoming a Trust in April 1994, the Chelsea & Westminster together with Charing Cross Hospital constituted Riverside Hospitals. Charing Cross Hospital became part of the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust and is now part of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Chelsea and Westminster Hospital became a Foundation Trust in 2006.

History of the Magill Department

The Department is named after Sir Ivan Whiteside Magill who worked at the Brompton and Westminster Hospitals. Magill was a pioneer of British anaesthesia and is best known for developing tracheal intubation and pulmonary anaesthesia, although he contributed to almost every aspect of anaesthesia.

The Academic Department of Anaesthetics was established at the Westminster Hospital in 1966 when Geoffrey (later Sir Geoffrey) Organe became the first Professor of Anaesthetics in an English undergraduate Medical School. In 1970, the Department officially became the ‘Magill’ Department and Sir Ivan came to the inauguration. In 1974, Professor Organe retired and Cyril Conway was appointed Professor.

The Magill Department joined with the Department of Anaesthetics at St. Stephen’s Hospital, Chelsea and Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton in 1978. In 1983, Westminster and Charing Cross Medical Schools merged. Cyril Conway became Professor of the joint Charing Cross & Westminster Academic Department. Professor Conway died in 1985 and Stanley Feldman was appointed Professor in 1990, retiring in 1995. The Westminster Hospital moved to the new Chelsea & Westminster Hospital at the old St. Stephen’s Hospital site in 1994. In 1997 Imperial College School of Medicine was formed (incorporating Imperial College School of Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute; Imperial College School of Medicine at St Mary’s; the Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School; and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School); in 2001 the School of Medicine became the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College, London. The Magill Department is now part of the Department of Anaesthetics, Pain Medicine and Intensive Care within Division of Surgery, Oncology, Reproductive Biology and Anaesthetics (SORA) Professor Mervyn Maze took up the Chair in 1999 and became Head of SORA in 2007.

The NHS Magill Department changed its name to the Magill Department of Anaesthesia, Intensive Care & Pain Management in 1998 to reflect the broad nature of its activities. It is part of the Anaesthetics & Imaging Directorate at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital; the Clinical Director is Dr M Phelan (Radiology).

NHS anaesthetic staff

  • Consultants
    • Dr J Allam: Consultant
    • Dr K Ashpole: Locum Consultant
    • Dr P Brooks: Consultant; College Tutor
    • Dr M Cox: Consultant
    • Dr D Dob: Consultant
    • Dr J Durbridge: Consultant; Lead Obstetric Anaesthetist
    • Dr N Fauvel: Consultant; Honorary Senior Lecturer
    • Dr S Galton: Consultant
    • Dr I Goodall: Consultant
    • Dr KM Haire: Consultant; Director of Day Care Unit
    • Dr JM Handy: Consultant; Honorary Senior Lecturer
    • Dr M Hayes: Consultant; Honorary Senior Lecturer
    • Dr A Jandziol: Consultant
    • Dr R Keays: Consultant; Honorary Senior Lecturer
    • Dr T Kirwan: Consultant; Director of Acute Pain Service; Honorary Senior Lecturer
    • Dr M Kulkarni: Consultant
    • Dr B Norman: Consultant
    • Dr A Petrohai: Locum Consultant
    • Dr P Shetty: Locum Consultant
    • Dr N Soni: Consultant; Director, Intensive Care Unit; Honorary Senior Lecturer
    • Dr V Thomas: Consultant
    • Dr J Thornton: Consultant
    • Dr G Towlerton: Consultant
    • Dr A Volger: Locum Consultant
    • Dr A Weigert: Locum Consultant
    • Dr M Weston: Consultant; Service Director
    • Dr S Yentis: Consultant; Honorary Senior Lecturer
  • Associate Specialists
    • Dr Z Hanafiah
    • Dr O Potparic
  • Other consultants
    • Dr S Cox: Consultant in Palliative Care Medicine
    • Dr B Porter Consultant Anaesthetist (Charing Cross Hospital)
    • Dr S Singh: Consultant Intensivist; Honorary Senior Lecturer

Trainee anaesthetic staff

There are 18 SpRs who rotate between the Chelsea and Westminster and other hospitals within the Imperial School of Anaesthesia, two obstetric anaesthetic fellows and two ICU fellows. A number of other research posts are also in place at any one time.

There are seven ST-1/2 posts; they rotate to Charing Cross Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital. The Department takes on ST-1s both with and without prior anaesthetic experience (enquiries to Dr. P. Brooks)

Other NHS staff

 

Academic staff

  • Prof M Maze: Head of Dept; Head of Neurosciences Group
  • Prof M Takata: Head of Critical Care Group
  • Dr N Marczin: Head of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia Group
  • Dr A Rice: Head of Neuropathic Pain Group
  • Dr I Nagy: Head of Sensory Pain Group
  • Mr F Noormohamed: Dept Aministrator/Laboratory Manager
  • Ms W Torto: PA to Prof Maze (for enquiries about the Academic Dept)

 

Department Activities - Service

  • Surgical specialties covered include general; gynaecological; orthopaedic; vascular; urological; plastic & burns; paediatric/neonatal.
  • The maternity unit has a 24-hour epidural service available; regional analgesia rates for labour are 50-60% for primigravidae and 35-40% for multigravidae. The unit specialises in high-risk pregnancy and the Anaesthetic Department is involved in many of these cases, including cardiac, neurological and other disorders.
  • The Intensive Care Unit has 8 ICU beds (plus 2 beds in the Burns Unit) and 4 HDU beds, and offers care to surgical, medical and obstetric patients. There is also a separate 4-bedded paediatric HDU.
  • There is an Acute Pain Service which is active throughout the hospital and a Chronic Pain Service with weekly outpatient sessions and two inpatient beds.
  • The Magill Department also covers resuscitation, Accident & Emergency, paediatric neuroradiology and electroconvulsive therapy.

Department Activities - Research,Training and Meetings

  • Research: main areas of research at the Westminster/Chelsea and Westminster site over the last 50 years have included development of monitoring and respiratory equipment, acid-base balance, anaesthetic breathing systems, neuromuscular blocking drugs and aspects of intensive care and obstetric anaesthesia. Current interests in the department include the following:
    • ICU: catheter-related sepsis; renal function; iv fluids; inotropes; cytokines, blood transfusion.
    • Burns: inflammatory response and sepsis.
    • Obstetrics: regional analgesia and anaesthesia.
    • General: postoperative pain, tracheal intubation.
    • Pain: mechanisms; alpha-2 receptors; genetics of pain pathways.
    • Several projects are in progress at any one time. Most trainees have the chance to be involved in one or more projects.
  • Training:
    • There is a monitored structured training programme for trainees. Continuous audit of trainees’ work confirms a high level of senior supervision. The Magill Department is part of the Imperial School of Anaesthesia.
    • Dr. P Brooks is College Tutor (Royal College of Anaesthetists) and Dr M Hayes is SpR Programme Director.
    • An Anaesthetic Simulator programme has been running since the beginning of 2000.
  • Meetings:
    • Regular weekly meetings take place.
    • The annual Magill Symposium is held around November/December, covering a different theme each year.
  • Audit and risk management:
    • There are several audits in progress and a critical incident reporting scheme.
    • Regular morbidity/mortality meetings are held with different surgical specialties.
    • Risk-management issues are coordinated by Dr. B. Norman

Department Activities - Recent textbooks from the Magill Department

  • The Primary FRCA - a complete guide to preparation and passing. Sharpe RM, Brunner MD, Yentis SM, Hasan M, Robinson PN. Butterworth-Heinemann 2002. ISBN: 0750652209.
  • Textbook of clinical pain management. Rice ASC, Warfield CA, Justins D, Eccleston C. Hodder Arnold 2002. ISBN: 034070635X.
  • Classic papers in critical care. Fink M, Hayes M, Soni N. Bladon Medical Publishing 2003. ISBN: 1904218210.
  • Oh’s intensive care manual (5th edn.). Bersten A, Soni N, Oh TE, eds. Butterworth-Heinemann 2003. ISBN: 0750651849.
  • Anaesthesia and critical care – an exam revision companion. Dodds C, Soni N. Churchill Livingstone 2003. ISBN: 0443071527.
  • Anesthetic pharmacology: physiologic principles and clinical practice. Evers AS, Maze M. Chuchill-Livingstone 2004. ISBN: 0443065799
  • Anaesthesia and intensive care A-Z (3rd edn). Yentis SM, Hirsch NP, Smith GB. Butterworth-Heinemann 2004. ISBN: 0750687770.
  • Core topics in pain. Holdcroft A, Jagger S. Cambridge; 2005. ISBN: 0521857783.
  • View from the head end: medical cartoons to ease the pain. Yentis SM. TFM Publishing 2005. ISBN: 1903378427.
  • Crises in childbirth – why mothers survive: lessons from the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths. Dob D, Holdcroft A, Cooper G, eds. Radcliffe 2007. ISBN: 1846190495.
  • Analgesia, anaesthesia & pregnancy: a practical guide (2nd edn). Yentis SM, May AE, Malhotra S. Cambridge 2007. ISBN: 0521694744.

Other useful sites

I have tried to list sites which offer good inclusive lists of further resources, rather than list all the individual resources themselves, to avoid cluttering and repetition. Perhaps one day there will be better coordination of how information is presented at anaesthetic sites; until then you’ll get the same links to other sites at every site you visit. Where I’m not aware of good index sites (i.e. general or UK orientated and not too unwieldy), I’ve attempted to provide lists myself.

UK & Ireland Anaesthetic Departments:

The number with web pages is steadily increasing; here’s a list

 

Other UK academic sites are listed here

 

Anaesthetic sites:

There is an ever increasing number - the following selection has a general or UK slant:

·         Age Anaesthesia Association

·         Anaesthesia and Critical Care Resources on the Internet (ACCRI)

·         Anaesthetic Research Society

·         Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain & Ireland

·         Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthetists

·         Association of Paediatric Anaesthetists

·         Association for Low Flow Anaesthesia

·         British Medical Acupuncture Society

·         British Society of Orthopaedic Anaesthetists

·         Confidential Enquiries into Maternal and Child Health

·         Difficult Airway Society

·         GASNet

·         History of Anaesthesia Society

·         Intensive Care Society

·         National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death

·         Neuroanaesthesia Society of Great Britain & Ireland

·         Obstetric Anaesthetists’ Association

·         Pain Society

·         Royal College of Anaesthetists

·         Society for Computing and Technology in Anaesthesia

·         Society for Education in Anaesthesia (UK)

·         Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology

·         UK Society for Intravenous Anaesthesia

·         Virtual Anaesthesia Textbook

·         Your Anaesthetic (joint AAGBI/RCA site for patients)

 

Medical journals:

The number available on-line with anaesthetic interest continues to grow. The best list I’ve found is here.

 

Other medical sites:

·         Department of Health, UK - official statistics and reports

·         National Library of Medicine at Washington - listings of just about every publication in existence

·         OMNI (Organising Medical Information Network; mainly UK)

·         Tagish’s directory of UK local and central government, health and other organisational structures

 

Search tools:

·         There are many of these, each with slightly different features; Google, Lycos, Yahoo, AltaVista and Metacrawler are amongst the most widely used. Yell and UK Plus are ones specifically relating to the UK.

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