The Department of Anaesthesia at the Madras Medical College (MMC) will be upgraded into an Institute of Anaesthesia within a month, Principal Secretary, Health, V.K. Subburaj said on Sunday.
Addressing the annual continuing medical education programme “MACME” organised by the anaesthesia department at MMC and The Anaesthesia CME Society Chennai, Mr. Subburaj said while the anaesthesia department at Madurai Medical College had already been accorded the status of an Institute, the MMC unit too would soon be made an Institute headed by a Director.
Mr. Subburaj said that the Government would also take up with the Medical Council of India the issue of expanding the PG seat capacity in various specialities across the 17 Medical Colleges in the State. Though about 200 PG seats had been added in recent times for courses such as DM cardiology (2 to 14), Neurology (6 to 14) and Cardio Thoracic Surgery (4 to 14), there was still a need to further increase the number of seats as post-graduate courses had been started only in 15 of the 29 specialities, he said.
Mr. Subburaj wanted an institution like the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University to incorporate theoretical and practical exposure to anaesthesiology into the MBBS curriculum. Noting that MBBS graduates posted at Casualty units were found wanting in critical care skills, Mr. Subburaj suggested that at least a month's training during the 12-month house surgeons period had to involve anaesthesiology.
Noting that the shortage of anaesthetists had been hampering critical care delivery even in basic services like safe delivery in maternity institutions, the Health Secretary said Tamil Nadu had been able to bring down maternal mortality rates due to the success of the life saving anaesthesia training programme —a Central Government initiative to conduct short term anaesthesiology courses for MBBS doctors.
The training given to 175 doctors posted at the 500 Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care Centres had helped bring down maternal deaths to 79 per lakh live births in the State, he said.
Inaugurating the CME, Mayil Vahanan Natarajan, Vice-Chancellor, The Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University, said the University had initiated Fellowships in various specialities recognising the emerging needs in super specialised care.
The University had also launched online access to medical journals on its website for students and faculty, he said.
On the occasion, Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to C. R. Janakiraman and G. Raghavelu.
MMC Dean J. Mohanasundaram said the Anaesthesia unit at MMC had a central role in the 18 cadaver transplants performed last year.
R. Chandrasekaran, former head, anaesthesia, MMC and “MACME” founder, said the activities of the Anaesthesia CME Society ranged from bringing out newsletters and donating books to the MMC library to scholarship schemes.
C. Veni, Medical Superintendent, Government General Hospital, C. R. Kanyakumari, Head, Anaesthesia, MMC, and T. Venkatachalam, “MACME” organising secretary also participated.
