Message from the President to all Fellows, Trainees & Affiliates

Dr Brian Kinirons

CAI President

Dear Colleagues, As Fellows, Trainees and affiliates, we write to clarify that the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland is fully committed to the framework for restrictive measures introduced by the Government . Physical distancing, hand hygiene and other health and safety guidelines have required adaptations to the physical training environment and resulted in new challenges. We, at the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland, have escalated all appropriate protective measures and have limited congregation to support the continued progression of our specialist trainees. Our response as a College is informed by the Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business, the HSA return to work protocols and ongoing public health advice. Our priority is to support our trainees progression through training, while keeping people safe. Our College, as well as our partners in the regions have developed detail planning and contingencies for on-site provision of training and I would like to acknowledge and thank all our fellows who have been active in this area. Based on current evidence, the World Health Organisation advises that the most plausible future scenario in the epidemiology of COVID-19 may involve recurring peaks interspersed with periods of low-level transmissions. It is impossible to predict with certainty what the future trajectory of the COVID-19 disease will be in Ireland . Our commitment to you, is that we will continue to monitor and review public health advice as COVID-19 evolves and communicate with you on any changes to our specialist training programme. Finally, we would like to thank you for ensuring that Specialist Anaesthesiology Training continues to progresses in a timely fashion. Our strength as a College is the support that exists for each other, to borrow a famous Irish phrase “Ní neart go cur le chéile, there is no strength without unity“. Tutor training day It was a great pleasure to welcome our Tutors to our annual Tutor training day on the 9th of October. Once again, it gave me the chance to say thank you and acknowledge the incredible work that they do on our behalf of the College. The agenda was fast paced, with included updates from the College and from the tutors, a session on work-based assessments and on reflective practice. My only regret was that we did not get to meet in person, but we look forward to a time when we can.

Extra SAT 7 post CSCST Fellowships

Ireland has the lowest rate of consultants in the EU. Developing and fast-tracking medical manpower to support additional ICU capacity , the new children’s hospital and the maternity strategy is a college, government and slaintecare priority. We recently submitted a business case to the HSE to upgrade 25 posts to faciliate additional post CSCST Fellowships . I am pleased to let you know that we have been successful and recruitment to those posts are underway.

World Anaesthesia Day World Ether day was celebrated on the 16th of October 2020. It is remarkable to think how far our specialty has developed since the first tentative steps by William Morton on the 26th of October 1846. The news of the successful demonstration of the use of ether as an anaesthetic travelled remarkably fast to Ireland. Mr John MacDonnell, a surgeon from the Richmond Hospital, used ether on an 18-year-old patient, Mary Kane, on Friday 1st January 1847. She underwent an upper limb amputation for chronic suppurative disease. When she woke up she declared that she had felt no pain.

World anaesthesia day was an opportunity to highlight the global inequalities in access to healthcare. Lack of access to safe surgery and anaesthesia kills more patients worldwide than tuberculosis, HIV, and malaria combined. In an article with the Medical Independent I took the opportunity of world anaesthesia day to discuss global inequalities in healthcare and highlighted the ongoing efforts of the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland to build physician anaesthesiology capacity in Africa and to improve universal access to safe, affordable, surgical and anaesthesia care. This continues through our long established association with Malawi and more recently for the CAI/RCSI/Irish Aid support (with other international stakeholders) for the establishment of the College of Anaesthesiologists of East, Central and Southern Africa (CANECSA).

Global Health Education Ireland Symposium 2020 In 2018, the Forum of Irish Postgraduate Medical Training Bodies established a Global Health Strategic Working Group. Our primary focus is the education and training of health professionals in low and middle income countries. We also seek to educate health professionals in Ireland with global health competencies so as to better serve patients in our own health service. The Global Health Education Ireland (GHEI) symposium grew out of this working group. You may remember that our College hosted the inaugural event in 2019. The 2020 GHEI symposium was hosted by RCSI and delivered virtually. The three session addressed “Global Health and Education in a pandemic”, “Partnerships for education and training in a changing world” and “Global Health Education Ireland – what next?”. Speakers included Minister Colm Brophy TD Minister for State for Overseas Development and Disaspora, Dr. Mike Ryan from the WHO and Dr. Colm Henry CCO. Speakers from Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia were include in the programme. Dr. Doreen Mashava Registrar of the College of Anaesthesiologists of East Central and Southern Africa (CANECSA) spoke about the CANECSA journey to date and their recent successful delivery of their first exam. Over 500 delegates registered for the event. The event can be accessed on RCSI’s You Tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6DbJmB3fDQqv4E7qQOqW3s9WCzsLEUxm