Last few places remaining at Belfast Cadaver Course 2020

There are a few remaining places left on the reknowned RA-UK Belfast Cadaver course on 3/4th April 2020.

This course features faculty including: Prof. Graeme Macleod (Dundee), Paul Kessler (Frankfurt) as well as RA-UK's own Alan Macfarlane and Lloyd Turbitt.

It counts towards one of the 3 workshops required by ESRA for EDRA Part II, including the cadaver workshop component.

Further details and booking here 

Election to RA-UK Council 2020

Nominations are being sought for up to 2 positions on the RA-UK Council, plus one trainee representative.

The duration of the appointment is for up to 3 years. Council members will be expected to attend 2 full board meetings per annum, contribute to the general working of the society, and undertake specific roles and responsibilities as directed by the President. For further information or informal enquiries about the role please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Each nominee must be:
i. An Ordinary member of the Society  in the year of the vote and have been a member for at least one year. ii. Proposed and seconded by two Ordinary members of the Society.

Please note that only one applicant from any hospital/institution will be considered. Nominations should be returned by post and email to the Honorary Secretary at the address below by 12:00 Mon 13th April 2020. 

All RA-UK members will be invited to participate in an online ballot which will commence on Monday 20th April 2020. The election results will be announced at the RA-UK Annual General Meeting in Sheffield on Tuesday 21st May 2020.

Please complete the following Appication Form (and candidate statement), and submit via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. along with a digital photo for display on the RA-UK Website. A paper copy should also be posted to the address at the bottom of the application form.

Please note that all ordinary members of RA-UK are eligible to vote. This includes Full ESRA members from the UK who have not also joined RA-UK. If you believe you are eligible to vote, but aren't an RA-UK member, please register your intent to vote prior to April 1st 2020, along with your ESRA membership number to the webmaster email.

Plan A Blocks

We are pleased to announce a new section of the website entitled Plan A blocks.

A call for RA/ERAS protocols

Dear all,

At RA-UK 2019 I noticed that one of the most photographed slides of the conference was Dr Sandy Kopps' ERAS protocol for knees, which gave me a thought....

Why not host as many regional anaesthesia and enhanced recovery protocols as you'd like to share?

In time I hope this will become a valuable resource where people can see what others are doing, learn from and be inspired by different ways of doing things, as well as just plain not reinventing the wheel each time. We are interested in hearing from institutions around the world for their contributions.

If you have a protocol you're proud of, please send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and we will upload to the site. Please send in word or pdf, but ensure it has your institutional affiliations.

RA-UK will provide these on the basis that they do not encompass societal recommendations of care, but rather a learning resource.

Pocket Guide to Regional Anaesthesia now available

We are delighted to announce that the shiny, brand new second edition of the RA-UK Pocket Guide to Regional Anaesthesia is now available to purchase from Amazon.

Those waiting on copies promised for membership should now have been received, (if you think you are due a book and havent received one, please contact the membership helpdesk on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). We have plenty of stock for bulk orders for courses etc.

Thanks for your patience, and we hope you like the new book!

RCEM clarifies statement about FICB

Dear Members,

A recent statement by the RCEM about a tragic death after hip fracture generated a great deal of concern both amongst members and anaesthetic societies. 

We are pleased to report that the RCEM have taken steps to clarify their initial response, the text of which is provided below. RA-UK fully endorses the following.

22nd February 2018

We have been asked to reply to several recent queries regarding the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s recent FIB safety newsflash published on 9th February 2018.

Firstly, thanks to those of you who have engaged and expressed an opinion on this matter. The safety newsflash has certainly generated lots of interest.

Most of the queries we received were from people who felt the headlines ‘death after fascia iliaca block’ and ‘stop before you block’ were misleading. This was not our intention. When we design these safety alerts, we aim to be punchy and bold in our headlines thus capturing the attention of our members.

Sometimes we do not always get this right and, in this instance, perhaps the headline ‘the importance of monitoring after fascia iliaca block’ would have been clearer.

Above all and most importantly we aim to highlight the risks that arise from such cases, ensuring that healthcare professionals are aware of the risks and that appropriate guidelines are put in place preventing future deaths.

The matters of concern as identified from the Coroner’s report to remember are as follows:

1) The Expert Consultant in Pain Medicine explained that after the fascia iliaca block was administered analgesia will occur over 10-15 minutes. As the patient obtains better analgesia from the fascia iliaca block, the opioids in the circulation would have more toxic effect than an analgesic effect. Pain is a potential arousal stimulus keeping the patient awake and aware of their surroundings. Pain is also a respiratory stimulant. There is an intimate link between the neurophysiology of pain and the respiratory stimulant. It was recognised that removing a painful stimulus using a local anaesthetic block can pre-dispose patients who have had opioids to respiratory depression. The risk can be increased if the patient has other respiratory depressant risks such as alcohol which can act synergistically with the opioid. In order to avoid this, the patient would need to be observed during the first 30 minutes after the administration of the block to reverse the effect of the opioid or support the respiration if required to avoid a cardiac arrest and death.

1. 2)  At the time of death there were no National Guidelines to advise on the need to monitor patients post procedure or application of the anaesthetic nerve block.
2. 3)  At inquest it was clear from the evidence of the Clinical Director of Emergency Medicine that in 2015 the effect of relative opioid toxicity following the administration of a local anaesthetic nerve block for proximal femur fractures was not widely recognised within emergency medicine. As there was an increase in the use of fascia iliaca block in conjunction with opioid analgesia in emergency medicine, the risk should be highlighted to health professionals so that they were aware of the risk and the appropriate guidelines put in place.

At RCEM, it is our responsibility to increase the awareness of such risks so that the appropriate preventative measures, guidance and protocols can be put in place by healthcare professionals. In this case, to reduce the risk of respiratory depression, arrest or death after the administration of fascia iliaca block.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine recommends the following measures and guidance:

An ED LocSSIP / guideline should include documentation of:

• Site, side, dose and time of block
• Frequency of past procedure observations: a minimum would be at 5, 10, 15, 30 mins post procedure • RCEM/FIBguideline Finally, the fact that this safety newsflash has generated so much interest can only be viewed as a positive as it is from open and transparent conversations that we are able to further our learning and improve patient care. Please feel free to circulate this reply to whosoever in your Trust you consider appropriate.

Best wishes,

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine