What is the Pre-Operative Assessment Clinic (POAC)?

The Pre-Operative Assessment Clinic (POAC) runs clinics at both the University Hospital of Wales, and University Hospital Llandough.  

What is POAC?

POAC, or Pre-Operative Assessment Clinic, is designed to assess your fitness for an operation and/or anaesthetic. 

Early in the journey towards surgery, patients will pass through POAC, this may be in-person, or remotely, we aim to:

• 'Prepare' you for surgery
• Make surgery as safe as possible, and to reduce the risks of complications and cancellations
• Give you the best chance of a quicker, better recovery
• We are often involved in discussing risks around operation and recovering from surgery, trying to reduce risks where we can, and so you are as informed as you want to be to ensure the planned or proposed surgery is right for you, this is called  Shared Decision Making (Centre for Perioperative Care Link)