Danchin & Partners
Anaesthetist in Durban

Pre-operative Assessment: An Anaesthetist will assess all patients going for a procedure or operation. The various peri-operative concerns will be evaluated and discussed. Pre-Anaesthetic Assessment Clinic: The aim of this clinic is to prevent delays and postponement of operations due to the medical issues and fitness of the patient. joint replacements, or who have significant underlying medical conditions, should be referred to this clinic. The patients will be assessed with relevant investigations and their medications adjusted if need be, to obtain optimal medical fitness for their operations. Super Specialist Anaesthetics: Groups of Anaesthetists within our partnership give a niche service to certain specific fields of surgery e.g. Resuscitation and Trauma or Emergency Surgery: Our Anaesthetists are available to assist our supporting surgeons or physicians (your primary doctor) with any emergency surgery, trauma or medical resuscitation that may be required. This super-specialized care is an integral part of our field of medicine. The fees that anaesthesiologists charge are a summation of the preoperative consultation and a time based anaesthetic procedure fee. The consultation is needed to assess the patient’s risk factors and to enable planning of the anaesthetic management. Over the last decade there has been an unparalleled increase in general consultation fees versus procedure based fees by the Medical Funders. Whilst the South African Society of Anaesthesiologists would have preferred a combined fee for the anaesthetic procedure and consultation this would have significantly disadvantaged us. as with a phycisian or surgeon) has been calculated on a time basis but this is erroneous for anaesthesiologists as we are forced to assess patients often on the day of surgery (as most Medical Funders have blocked admission the night prior to major surgery) and in a limited time period prior to the commencement of the operating list. While the anaesthesiologist may only spend 5-10 minutes with you this time is used effectively to assess your recorded medical history, to perform an examination to exclude any anaesthetic risk factors and to plan the nature of the anaesthetic. If your procedure is either unbooked prior to the start of the list or an emergency then this type of case attracts an additional 'emergency fee' irrespective of the time of day. If the attending anaesthesiologist needs to make a special trip to the venue were your procedure is booked this will attract an additional 'emergency travel' fee. These fees are included to remunerate anaesthesiologists for the disruption to their planned workday and to encourage timeous attendance at any emergency. Medical aids should be viewed as insurance cover and the type of package one chooses will dictate what one's excess will be. For example some medical aids offer a plan which will cover our entire fee, whilst other plans only cover a small proportion. The choice is yours as the consumer and it is important to remember that we contract with you, the patient, and not the Medical Aid. BDP not only endeavours to add economic anaesthetic value by practicing cost effective and ethical anaesthesia but also social anaesthetic value. The latter is substantiated by our practice being able to provide 24 hrs of anaesthetic and ICU service, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. We offer a pre-admission consultation service for those high-risk cases that need investigations and medical management prior to the elective surgical procedure. This service has reduced the risk of cancellation of your booked procedure due to being medically unfit for an anaesthetic. Please remember that it is YOUR surgeon who has chosen to work with us as they feel we offer the anaesthetic service that allows him/her to get the best possible surgical outcome for you.