ANZCA National Anaesthesia Day 2023

The aim of this year's theme - Anaesthetists: Caring for our sickest patients before, during and after surgery - is to help the community understand the crucial role anaesthetists play in healthcare and the importance of an integrated, planned, and personalised approach to patient care before, during and after any surgical procedure involving anaesthesia.

#NAD23 will explain that perioperative medicine involves a wide range of healthcare professionals working together to improve the patient experience, reduce postoperative complications, reduce inpatient hospital days and reduce early readmissions following surgery.

Our NAD resources will include a poster and other material for distribution and/or download from our website by early October. We’re also planning an animated video to explain perioperative medicine to our patients and this will be available for download on our website.



If you haven’t yet nominated a champion we hope that you will be able to join us in celebrating by nominating a #NAD23 champion at your hospital or anaesthesia practice.

Champions may want to display posters, share activities on social media or even organise a NAD bake day!

What you need to know:

• Nominate a champion and send your champion’s contact details and full postal address for delivery of materials to communications@anzca.edu.au or communications@anzca.org.nz.
• Email us to confirm your request for delivery of posters and other material no later than Friday 22 September. The #NAD23 poster will also be available on our website for you to download if you miss the deadline.

Did you know..?

Each year, more than four million Australians and New Zealanders will have an anaesthetic. In fact, most people will need the care of an anaesthetist at some stage in their lives – for pain relief during the birth of a baby, for a routine day-stay procedure or for a major operation requiring complex, split-second decisions that keep patients alive. But it's one of those things we don't really think about until we need it. To help you feel more relaxed about having surgery under anaesthesia, we've created a wide range of patient information.

About National Anaesthesia Day

An ANZCA initiative, National Anaesthesia Day is usually held each year on 16 October to mark the anniversary of the day in 1846 that ether anaesthesia was first demonstrated publicly. Due to 16 October falling over the weekend this year, we've decided to celebrate on Monday 17 October instead.