The Royal College of Anaesthetists

Who we are

The Royal College of Anaesthetists is the professional body responsible for the specialty throughout the UK. We are the third largest medical royal college in the UK by membership. With a combined membership of more than 24,000 Fellows and Members, we ensure the quality of patient care by safeguarding standards in the three specialties of anaesthesia, intensive care and pain medicine.

The College is the home of the Faculty of Pain Medicine (FPM) and we are proud to be one of the eight parent Colleges of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM). We also host the Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC), which promotes multidisciplinary approaches to improving perioperative care. Perioperative care is inextricably linked with our strategic direction and is vital to the future of the specialty. It’s a collaboration of healthcare professional organisations committed to the promotion and development of perioperative care in the NHS, hosted and majority funded by the RCoA.

Our culture and values

Kindness and compassion are important to us – kindness for others and kindness for the world in which we live. We are both open to constructive challenge and seek and include the views of our diverse employees, members and communities.

We live by four key values, and they guide us in everything that we do.

Caring and Supportive – we are thoughtful, respectful and responsive to the needs of our people and of our responsibilities to the environment.

Just and Fair – we are opposed to racism and discrimination of any kind, and honest, trustworthy, transparent and fair in the way we conduct ourselves and in the way we work.

Innovative and Progressive – we are committed to innovation and development to drive continuous quality improvement.

Open and Responsive – we are an agile organisation that is open to new ideas.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

At RCoA diversity, equality and inclusion is an integral part of our culture so it is important to us that this is reflected in everything that we do. We welcome applications from all individuals irrespective of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion or belief, disability, marital status, or parental responsibilities to ensure we actively embrace an inclusive and representative culture that encourages, supports, and celebrates our differences.