More than 7 000 delegates in Cape Town for World Anaesthetic Congress

Cape Town, South Africa - As the 14th Annual World Congress of Anaesthesiologists gets under way at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) between Tuesday 4 and Friday 7 March, The World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists Foundation (WFSA) is in the Mother City on a specific mission.

We see our presence in Cape Town, South Africa as especially strategic, says Phillip O. Bridenbaugh, M.D. and Chair of the WFSA Foundation.

The WFSA Foundation is using the Congress as a vital platform for raising awareness of the need for making available and dissemination, through the Foundation, of the highest standards of anaesthesia, pain treatment, trauma and resuscitation, notably in under-developed countries throughout the world.

At this very moment, it is, in part, through the continuing effective endeavours of the WFSA Foundation that countless lives are being saved through preventing unnecessary deaths due to lack of proper anaesthetics and anaesthetic training, he notes.

Suppose you are seriously injured in an automobile accident, or your child breaks a leg playing sports, or your spouse must undergo surgery. Now, imagine the pain and suffering that you or a family member would have to endure if your medical procedures would be performed without anaesthesia
Unfortunately, this situation is a daily fact of life, and death, for millions of people around the world

In developed countries, where almost instantaneous pain relief is something we tend to take for granted, consider, then, that in many under-developed countries:

- 1 in 7 women will die during pregnancy or childbirth;
- 5 out of every 6 births are NOT attended by any healthcare personnel;
- Most hospitals have NO physicians trained in anaesthesia;
- Nearly 90% of anaesthetists lack the equipment to provide a safe paediatric anaesthetic.
- There is an associated need for clinical and teaching supplies: many anaesthesia departments have no textbooks or journals from which to study

These conditions are not only, in Dr Bridenbaugh's words, appalling; they are unnecessary, and are being lessened by volunteers from the WFSA who have developed and are implementing long-range Teach The Teachers programmes to help save thousands of lives for generations to come.

There is clearly an acute lack of trained healthcare personnel, in particular at the physician level. A goal of the WSFA Foundation is to create funding for our programmes that will teach teachers in their own countries where they will stay and perpetuate the numbers of physicians in anaesthesia and its sub-specialties, Dr Bridenbaugh notes.

Now consider that, annually, dozens of WFSA anaesthetist volunteers are teaching in a multitude of programmes benefiting thousands of healthcare personnel and their patients in 20-30 countries throughout the world.

WFSA is a Federation of 141 national societies, whose missions are, exclusively, educational, scientific, and charitable; and to make available the highest standards of Anaesthesia, Pain Medicine, Trauma Management, Resuscitation, and Critical Care Medicine to all people of the world, with a major thrust in under-developed countries. The WFSA Foundations goal is to raise funds to further support the WFSA mission.

Lending support to Dr Bridenbaughs assertions are WFSA President Anneke Meursing, MD, from The Netherlands; Educational Committee Director Angela Enright, MD of Canada; and Congress Convenor David Morrell, MD of the South African Society of Anaesthesiologists.

Bridenbaugh adds that WFSA Foundation's presence at this Congress is important to the successful outcomes of WFSA educational initiatives such as its Teach The Teacher programs which can help save lives for generations to come.

Making a strong case for continued corporate, organizational and individual support, as much as from their peers within the medical fraternity attending the Congress, Drs Morrell and Enright cite examples of the difference that a contribution can make towards saving lives and alleviating pain:

To provide the following, it costs:

$1,000-4,000: Visiting teachers all over the world
$2,500: Refresher course for rural anaesthesiologists
$5,000-10,000: Each Teach the Teachers programme
$5,000-10,000: One-year Paediatrics or Obstetrics Fellowship
$5,000-10,000: Equipment Repair and Maintenance Workshops
Contributions make a significant difference in the lives of people whose suffering is very real and lasts a short lifetime. With WFSA Foundations administrative and operational costs covered by other sources, every single cent donated is used for WFSA programmes.

Summing up where WFSA Foundation sees itself headed, Dr Bridenbaugh notes: “We are still at the beginning stages of telling our story to the world and we are confident that the more people learn about these efforts, the more inclined they will be to help others from unnecessary pain, suffering and death.”

When asked about maintaining the momentum of these worldwide efforts, Dr. Bridenbaugh notes that financial support has been growing worldwide and that 100% of all WFSA Foundation contributions directly benefit its programmes.

Those interested in more information are welcome to contact the WFSA Foundation headquarters:

21 Portland Place, London, W18 1PY, United Kingdom, or by visiting the following websites:

www.anaesthesiologists.org: The World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) Foundation website
www.wca2008.com: 14th Annual World Congress of Anaesthesiologists website (where the full Congress programme can also be viewed)