The adoption of checklists within healthcare leads to improvements in patient safety. Perioperative management of patients with comorbidity and polypharmacy is complex and whilst physical checklists, aviation style computerised checklists, and mnemonics can all be used to make anaesthesia safer, these cannot cover the entirety or the complexity of perioperative care, and in particular, the principles by which anaesthetists work to promote restoration of function. Restoration of function is increasingly being seen as the marker of good anaesthetic care.