EDITOR, - As John N Lunn states,1 recovery room facilities in most hospitals meet the recently published requirements of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland.2 In most hospitals, however, patients leave the recovery area to receive a variable standard of care in a surgical ward, which often contrasts sharply with that provided in the operating theatre and recovery room. This imbalance conflicts with recent evidence suggesting that adverse events occurring in the first three days postoperatively are as important as those occurring intraoperatively.^3,4

Three …