Emma McCone is currently seconded as the national GIRFT lead for pre-operative assessment and has worked in preoperative assessment for over 20 years with her most recent clinical role as the nurse lead for preoperative assessment at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Her career began in surgery in 2000 on a surgical and vascular ward and after 3 years, she was lucky enough to secure a post in preoperative assessment which was still a fairly novel area across the surgical pathway
Over the last 20 years, she has developed a passion and enthusiasm for the development of preoperative assessment services and its vital part in the safe assessment of patients as part of perioperative care.

In 2020, she was proud to complete her MSc in perioperative medicine with UCL and was one of the very first nurses to complete this course. This gave her further knowledge and skills in understanding the importance of perioperative care and a strong foundation to develop education for patients and staff.

Since starting with GIRFT, she has been able to lead national workstreams across preoperative assessment including supporting workforce development, guidance for preoperative assessment services and set up the national non-medical preoperative assessment network in England which has in excess of 350 members. It is this network which has given perioperative teams across the country the ability to connect, share innovation and adopt best practice.

Emma also works with preoperative services at various sites to give focused support to improve the surgical pathways by looking at capacity and demand, workforce, service provision, early risk assessment and interventions whilst supporting staff to maintain a positive patient experience. She had also led the national postponement at preoperative assessment evaluation and published the initial pilot in the British Journal of Surgery.

Variation in surgery postponement rates in the NHS in England | British Journal of Surgery | Oxford Academic