Over 13,000 anaesthetic incidents reported and growing

WebAIRS is something every anaesthetist in Australia and New Zealand can be proud of. What began as a collaborative initiative to improve patient safety has now grown into the largest anaesthetic incident reporting database in the world, with over 13,000 incidents submitted to date. This incredible milestone reflects the ongoing commitment of our anaesthetic community to transparency, reflection, and continuous improvement. Each report represents not just a clinical event, but a professional taking the time to share their experience so that others can learn from it in the interest of safer care for our patients.

The power of webAIRS lies in its real-world insights. The data captured comes directly from anaesthetists across Australia and New Zealand. These reports help identify patterns, highlight potential safety issues, and shed light on both challenges and successes in clinical practice. They educate through increased awareness and enhance guidelines and safety initiatives at local, national, and international levels. From airway management and equipment failures to communication and human factors, webAIRS has become a hugely valuable record of our shared professional experience.

We are grateful to every anaesthetist who contributes a report and thereby helps to shape a culture where learning from incidents is valued and supported. It’s a system built by anaesthetists, for anaesthetists, and its continued success depends on all of us. Each contribution, no matter how minor an event may seem, adds to the collective understanding that ultimately keeps patients safer and strengthens our profession.

We encourage all anaesthetists, from trainees to senior consultants, to explore the website and read the analyses, or to log in to share their experiences or to become involved as an analyser reviewing the reported data. Reporting is simple, confidential, and protected under qualified privilege.

Together, we’ve already achieved something remarkable with more than 13,000 incidents reported. But this is just the beginning. WebAIRS is currently undergoing a quality improvement review, based on feedback from our regular users. We aim to make the database even more user-friendly and bring the technology up to date to ensure we have the capacity and capability to capture the next 13,000 events!

With all of our continued engagement and shared learning, webAIRS will keep growing as a global leader in anaesthesia safety and we invite you all to be a part of it.

If you are not yet registered with webAIRS, you can register at webairs.com to start contributing. If you are interested in conducting analyses on the growing dataset of over 13,000 incidents, contact the Australia and New Zealand Tripartite Anaesthetic Data Committee at anztadc@anzca.edu.au