British Columbia Anesthesiologists’ Society
The BC Anesthesiologists’ Society represents approximately 500 anesthesiologists who provide specialized medical services to hundreds of thousands of British Columbians each year.
Anesthesiologists are specialist physicians (medical doctors) who work around-the-clock to ensure your safety and comfort during childbirth and painful surgical procedures.
Provincially, BC’s anesthesiologists are also leaders and innovators in the way patient care is delivered… ensuring world-class safety outcomes for patients, while creating efficiencies that save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Anesthesiologists in British Columbia
British Columbia’s anesthesiologists are highly skilled medical doctors who have completed at least 13 years of post-secondary education, including five or more intensive years of residency training in Anesthesiology.
Our education includes:
- First-hand experience providing anesthesia care for surgical procedures.
- Extensive training in human physiology, particularly on vital organs like the brain, heart and lungs.
- Familiarization with different medical conditions and their safety implications for patients undergoing surgical procedures.
- Expert knowledge of the drugs that are used in anesthesia, pain control, resuscitation, and intensive care medicine.
- Expertise in managing interactions between anesthetics, pre-existing medical conditions, and the stress of surgery.
- Advanced skills needed to resuscitate and then medically supervise the overall care of BC’s sickest patients.
- Expertise in treating patients with the most complex pain management needs.
Following certification by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, many anesthesiologists also complete an additional “fellowship” year of sub-specialty training in areas such as pain management, cardiac anesthesia, pediatric anesthesia, neuro-anesthesia, obstetric anesthesia, or critical care medicine.
As with all other doctors, BC’s anesthesiologists are licensed and regulated by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC.
BC’s anesthesiologists care for over 500,000 British Columbians every year.
Our main role throughout your entire surgery is to:
- Provide continual medical assessment of your well-being.
- Monitor and control your vital life functions – including heart rate and rhythm, breathing, blood pressure, body temperature, and body fluid balance.
- Control your pain and level of consciousness to make conditions ideal for a safe and successful surgery.
We must carefully match the anesthetic needs of each patient to that patient’s medical condition, their responses to anesthesia throughout the procedure, and the requirements of the surgery.
Most of the time, you won’t even realize we are providing these critical functions – but rest assured – you have a physician by your side making sure your health and safety is protected at all times.
We also:
- Provide over 12,000 pregnant women with effective labour epidural pain relief every year.
- Administer and supervise advanced treatments for patients in acute pain (e.g. pain after major surgery, trauma victims, etc.).
- Develop chronic pain management plans for over 6,000 British Columbians who suffer from the most complex pain conditions (e.g. cancer).
- Provide medical supervision for over 5,000 of BC’s sickest patients, who require intensive life support in the province’s critical care units.
For more patient information about the care we provide, please click here.