Modern anaesthesia in a hospital setting is statistically safer than the drive to the airport. Here is how it is monitored.
A dedicated anaesthetist stays with you for the entire operation — they do not float between theatres. Their only job is your airway, blood pressure, oxygenation, temperature and depth of anaesthesia.
ECG, oxygen saturation, end-tidal CO₂, blood pressure, temperature and, in longer cases, depth of anaesthesia. Alarms are set to warn before a value becomes clinically significant, not after.
Bloods, ECG and a chest assessment identify the small number of patients for whom elective surgery should be postponed. A clinic that skips these to save a day is skipping the part that keeps anaesthesia safe.
Most patients remember nothing between counting and the recovery room. Nausea affects roughly one in five and is treated pre-emptively if you have a history. Sore throat from the airway tube is common and settles within a day.
For shorter procedures like eyelid surgery, yes. For abdominal or breast surgery, general anaesthesia is safer, not riskier.