Pre-operative assessment clinic

We see patients who will be having a planned operation at:

King’s College Hospital
Princess Royal University Hospital
Orpington Hospital
Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup

We assess your fitness for surgery and provide the information you need to help you prepare for your procedure.

If you are referred to us, you must have your pre-operative assessment in order to schedule your surgery date.

Health questionnaire

We may send you an electronic health questionnaire for you to complete.

We will email or text you about the questionnaire, and you can complete it in MyChart, our online portal and app for patients. You will be able to complete the questionnaire on a PC, tablet, or smartphone.

After you complete and submit your health questionnaire, a nurse will review it. We will either:

confirm you are fit for surgery, and send you the information you need for your pre-operative appointment. We will send this by email, post, or in MyChart
contact you with any questions or to arrange a blood test
ask you to a face-to-face pre-admission assessment if you have multiple health conditions

If you have any queries or are unable to complete the form, please email us at
[email protected] or call us on 020 3299 3025.

Before your appointment

Before your pre-operative assessment appointment:

check your appointment letter to see if you need to prepare anything
have a list of any current medications you take
please note that patients under 16 years of age must be accompanied by an adult

If you do not attend your pre-operative assessment, it may delay your operation date.

Telephone appointments

If your appointment is by phone:

please make sure you are in an appropriate place for discussing your medical history
one of our nurses will call you. The call may appear with no caller ID
it is possible the phone assessment will show you need to come into hospital for further tests or assessment. If this happens, the nurse will arrange this for you during the phone call.

Face-to-face appointments

If your appointment is face-to face at the hospital:

your visit may include having tests, so please be prepared to spend up to two hours at your appointment
if you have more complex medical conditions, we will arrange for your medical notes to be reviewed by an anaesthetist. Usually, you will not need another appointment for this. However if the anaesthetist does need more information, they will arrange a phone, video, or face-to-face appointment with you.
if you are not currently fit for surgery, you will be referred back to your GP. They will organise the pre-surgery treatment you need before you are added to a surgery waiting list.
we make every effort to ensure that patients are seen at their appointment time, however this is not always possible, as it is difficult to predict how long each patient will need to spend with the nurse.