Abstract: In designing the Survey, we did consider the issues of pre-operative testing and the safety of adhering/not adhering to the guidelines.However, we do not feel that these questions can be adequately addressed by an audit such as ours, particularly if the anonymity of respondents is to be preserved.Thus, the Survey was not designed to assess the safety or otherwise of pre-operative testing.The Survey did show that a small number of adverse events were reported, and that in many cases the patients had pre-operative testing?However, we do not know what the results of these tests were, nor what action was taken when test results were abnormal.This is true of those patients who had uneventful surgery, and applies equally to those who suffered adverse events.Hence, we cannot agree