mersey school of anaesthesia
Liverpool
Established in 1997, The Mersey School of Anaesthesia (MSA) is principally
concerned with preparing Trainee Anaesthetists facing their Primary & Final FRCA
Examinations. Originally held within a Charitable Trust Accounts at Liverpool
Heart & Chest and Aintree Hospitals, it was advised by the Trust Account
Managers that it should be moved and run as an independent Charitable Company.
In 2012 the MSA registered with the Charity Commission (Reg. No. 1149165).
Income is invested back into the Courses that the MSA run and at the end of each
Financial Year, any surplus income is donated to Research, Education and Patient
Care charities, these mostly of an anaesthetic texture in the UK or used to
support Volunteer Anaesthetists in various Charitable Ventures Abroad. Overall,
by the end of March 2021, the MSA has donated a total of over £900,000 to such
concerns, all of it by reason of candidates’ subscriptions to our courses and
classes allied to the full support of those Anaesthetists, who contribute as
Faculties to those Courses without expectation of recompense. Here is a collage
of some of the Donations/Funding Grants that have been made in recent years:
HERE Its Motto & Objectives The Motto of the MSA is “If you Feed the Children
with a Spoon, they will never Learn how to Use the Chopsticks” If you are a
Trainee planning on attending MSA Courses, it is important that you must
appreciate before you attend that the MSA never claim to provide teaching or
distribute teaching materials on its Courses. You must not attend expecting to
be taught. The Courses are designed for Exam Preparation and include; – Exposure
to Exam Style Questions – Opportunities to Practice in as close to Exam
Conditions as we can muster – Learn & Fine Tune Exam Techniques – Peer Learning
The advice to Trainees is that they should attend MSA Courses only when they
consider themselves adequately Prepared, in terms of knowledge, for the Imminent
Examinations. The MSA’s emphatic advice regarding all the FRCA Examinations is
that trainees should only sit these examinations when they feel that they
Deserve to Pass. It has to be courting Disappointment to enter for these exams
Hoping to Pass We also fully appreciate our methods do not suit everyone’s
learning style, therefore, you must feel assured before attending that it will
help you in your Exam Preparation and subsequently embrace the ‘gameplay’ we
offer. We are very conscious of Trainee’s valuable time and want to make sure
you make the best use of it. Not everyone finds the same approach useful. We are
happy to answer any questions that you may have, but also advise you to speak to
Colleagues who have been to MSA Courses in the past to ask them the questions:
‘Why they would recommend?’ and ‘How did the Course help them?’. Supporting
Lifebox… The MSA also contributes to Lifebox, an international charity concerned
with the improvement of Anaesthetic Services in underprivileged parts of the
world where the mortality from General Anaesthesia can be unacceptably high due
to a lack of suitable equipment or adequately trained personnel. To date this
specific donation is over £35,000. You can find our recent donations HERE
Supporting AquAid… We at the Mersey School of Anaesthesia are aware that keeping
our Candidates hydrated will aid them to perform at their very best throughout
the work day. In 2016, conscious of plastic pollution, the MSA stopped
distributing Bottled Water to Candidates at Registration to the Courses.
Instead, we invested in a couple of AquAid Water Coolers to be used on the
Courses and asked Candidates to bring their own refillable bottle. With each
purchase of a Water Cooler Refill Bottle an automatic donation has been made to
the Africa Trust. We are delighted to be informed that, as a result, these funds
have helped to build an ‘Elephant Pump’ in Africa to provide a much needed
source of clean & fresh drinking water for many in the community. Thank you to
AquAid for providing an excellent service and for giving us the opportunity to
help those less fortunate than ourselves. Please consider AquAid when looking
for a ‘Water Solution’ in your business or offices; we would highly recommend!
To date [2021] AquAid have donated in excess of £16 million and helped bring a
life-time supply of clean, fresh drinking water to more than 3.2 million people.
