Unqualified anaesthetists to be prosecuted by govt

KARACHI:

Stern action will be taken against anaesthetists practising without possessing any formal qualification in the specialty, said Sindh Health Secretary Syed Hashim Raza Zaidi on Saturday at the 31st Annual Congress of Pakistan Society of Anaesthesiologists (PSA) at a hotel. Action will also be taken against hospitals which permit unqualified medical personnel to practice.

Surgical operations pose significant risk, Zaidi said, adding that especially in such cases hospital owners, administrators and doctors need to exhibit extra vigilance to ensure theatres are adequately staffed and equipped. Saying that the role of anaesthesiologists is crucial in certain surgeries, he added that it should not be put in the hands of those who were not qualified.

Zaidi requested the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan to help with a post-graduate programme in the specialty. This, he suggested, could be done by creating more training slots with qualified doctors, many of who are now leaving the country.

According to Zaidi, the dearth of qualified anaesthetists is the result of brain drain to the Middle East.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2011.