Anaesthesia | Auckland | Te Toka Tumai | Te Whatu Ora

Street Address

Anaesthesia services are provided wherever surgery is taking place. We service the Auckland City Hospital at both:

Auckland City Hospital
2 Park Road
Grafton
Auckland 1023

and

Greenlane Clinical Centre
214 Greenlane Road West
Epsom
Auckland 1051

Anaesthetic Assessment/Follow-Up Clinics are held at:

Reception B
Ground Floor
Building 4
Greenlane Clinical Centre

Contact Details

Adult, Emergency Anaesthesia Department Secretary: (09) 307 4949 Extension 25690

Cardiac and ORL Anaesthesia Department Secretary: (09) 307 4949 Extension 23973

Greenlane Surgical Unit Anaesthesia Team Support: (09) 307 4949 Extension 28413

Starship Children's Anaesthesia Department Secretary: (09) 307 4949 Extension 24400

Women's Health Anaesthesia Department Secretary: (09) 307 4949 Extension 25026

Labour pain relief information session at Women's Health (09) 307 4949 Extension 23781

Anaesthetic Assessment and Follow-Up Clinic (Monday to Friday 8am to 4.30pm)
Appointment Queries - Phone (09) 307 4949 Extension 26750
Nurse Specialist Coordinator 021982613


General Anaesthesia

A combination of medications are given to make you unconscious.  Although often referred to as "sleep", this unconsciousness is very different from your nightly rejuvenating sleeping.

Medications are given to you through your veins using the intravenous cannula that will have been placed, and maybe through your lungs, using a breathing tube that we place after you have become unconscious.  This breathing tube also ensures you do not snore while you are unconscious. 

Anaesthetising a patient can take anywhere from 10 minutes upwards.  We make sure the patient is safe and fully anaesthetised before we allow surgery. The surgery then takes as long as necessary.  There are a lot of changes in the body while it is undergoing surgery; managing these changes and ensuring your safety is the anaesthetist's sole responsibility while the surgeon concentrates on doing the best surgery possible.

When the surgery is finished, the anaesthetic process is reversed while the patient is still in the operating room. After the patient has stabilised they are then transferred to the Recovery Room (PACU) and further monitored to ensure that they remain stable.  Patients will usually spend an hour in the PACU area prior to being returned to the ward. 

Modern anaesthesia is extremely safe.  We now have medication that is very well tolerated and short-acting. This  allows patients to have a minimal "hangover" effect from the anaesthetic drugs themselves, and enables the body to concentrate on recovering from the surgical process.

Some common unwanted effects can occur after surgery and these may be due to our anaesthetic medications, the surgical process, your position while having the surgery, the reason for you needing the surgery or a combination of all of these things.


https://www.healthpoint.co.nz/public/anaesthesia/anaesthesia-auckland-te-toka-tumai-te-whatu/