Anaesthesia has a PR problem
In my day job, I am an anaesthetist. It’s a tricky word to say, to spell, and to understand what it it is. We’re a product of our own success, rendering you unconscious so that surgery isn’t an assault. But with mind altering drugs so that you forget you’ve ever met us. I’m a professional drug pusher, licensed to give you the class As. But so much more.
The term ‘anaesthesia’ comes from two Greek words- an (lack of) aesthesis (feeling/sensation). So it follows that an anaesthetist trades in tricks that remove sensation, by rendering you unconscious, blocking your nerves with numbing medicines or some combination of both. By ’trades in tricks’ I mean ‘does a highly skilled job with significant personal responsibility that we train for years to become proficient in’. Maybe the inbuilt self deprecation and humility as a medical specialty has led to our PR problem. The general public doesn’t really know what we do. Yeah, we’re doctors, and we’re the doctors all the other doctors call when the shit’s hitting the fan in an emergency, but you might not have realised that.
In a bit of market research for a piece of work I'm doing in the audio sphere, I've been looking for anaesthesia content on social media, podcasts and television. Felt let down when an anaesthetic consultant on a podcast stated very clearly (I'm paraphrasing) that it's not in our nature to seek praise (compared to, traditionally, our surgical colleagues). Almost like, put up and shut up, how dare we chase glory. It's not glory I feel we should seek but a bit of basic recognition wouldn't go amiss.
In case, dear reader, you are an informed person and want the simple question of 'who is the anaesthetist' answered, you won't find it easily on the websites of the two biggest UK anaesthetic organisations (Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Association of Anaesthetists). Well, buried a few clicks in on the College website is dropdown box 'are anaesthetists doctors' which made me chuckle as one can guarantee some fed up anaesthetist wrote that. And, yes, the Association has a specific guideline called 'who is the anaesthetist' but their website is so woeful to navigate I only found it via a google search. Which is quite easily found.....but couldn't resist a dig at the website.
Having earlier in the year finished another enthralling series of The Traitors, it occurred to me that the nation responds to regular folks on television. So where does that leave us? Reality TV is often a specific brand of (sometimes deeply necessary) televisual trash and, in 2026, doesn't land with the same impact as a more specific gameshow type something like the Traitors anymore. We also consume by a bingeing streaming model rather than appointment TV these days; there is a very good reason the weekly drip of the Traitors captures the national imagination.
So am I auditioning for the Traitors? Absolutely not but the one of the keys to increasing the awareness of anaesthetists might land on some brave soul putting them forward for a national television role. Or if we had our own Mc Dreamy style TV character on a massive drama.
Let's do a run down on anaesthetists in pop culture to really examine why we might have a PR problem. Not comprehensive, by the way.
- Guy Secretan, Green Wing
Shout out to the Green Wing weird humour fans. A surreal, off the wall comedy set in a hospital, Guy was the anaesthetist and a proper dick. Not a role model.
- Bailey's boyfriend in Grey's Anatomy
They tried to feature an anaesthetist (or anesthesiologist to be truly North American) but he committed the ultimate betrayal and SWITCHED SIDES TO BECOME A SURGEON. COME ON.
- Lauren Lyle in The Ridge
I was delighted when Lauren Lyle led this recent BBC drama. Lauren (underappreciated as one of Scotland's best actors, also is Marsali in ‘Outlander’) plays an anaesthetist in training at a fictional Glasgow hospital. She steals controlled drugs, this has implications for patient care and thus the story ploughs on. It's not about that but heavily informs her character. Yes we have very easy access to dangerous drugs, yes anaesthetists can (and a minority do) struggle with drug addiction. But again, not a clear 'this is a good guy and you should root for them' character.
- Professor Kevin Fong, BBC
A real life anaesthetist and a bit of legend within the profession, Kevin has presented many documentaries and lectures on the BBC. But mostly about his side passion of space and NASA, not his day job. Give him his own anaesthesia themed series, BBC! Would watch. Quite easy on the eye too, but we don't objectify here on drdbunks.
- The film 'Awake’
Hayden Christensen trying to break free of the shadow of Anakin Skywalker in a truly awful horror movie about the sheer terror (and genuine fear/risk) of being awake under anaesthesia but unable to move. It's this kind of shit that perseverates the notion we are something to fear. Not a horror movie, actually. Surgery without any anaesthetic? Worthy of John Carpenter. Or arrest.
- The film 'Thirteen Lives'
Now this one is a proper heroic portrayal, as it a movie retelling the real life story of the 2018 Thai cave rescue in which the hero is an actual anaesthetist and saved thirteen lives using his skills in anaesthesia. Shout out to Dr Richard Harris, played in this film by Joel Edgerton.
- One nameless anesthesiologist, The Pitt
We can finally talk about The Pitt (Noah Wyle, grown up Dr Carter from ER, helms this excellent medical drama set in a busy US emergency department) as it has been released on HBO Max UK. For what I can only imagine is sheer dramatic flourish, the ER doctor does the tricky airway in a trauma situation where the rather pathetic anesthesiologist cannot. Side eye. If Ken in Barbie ‘beaches’, we ‘airway’. (I do understand storytelling and why elevate a random background character for a hero moment but COME ON).
Honorary mention for the complete anaesthesia erasure when the ER docs do an advanced procedure to insert a breathing tube within a season 2 episode but I obviously couldn't possibly comment as it hasn't been released in the UK yet....
Having watched friends of mine recently on a TV documentary about the emergency department, it does occur to me that following a day in the life of an anaesthetist would be quite dull. It’s not sexy. So we’re not going to get our recognition from that genre. And if you think we fly under the radar, may I encourage you to look up what an Operating Department Practitioner (ODP) is. Unsung copilot to the anaesthetist (no slight to anaesthesia nurses but folk know what nurses do).
Traitors it is, then. Nominate Kevin.
