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PE doctor develops surgery course

21 Jul 2017

An innovative short-learning course to teach surgery skills to doctors in rural areas has earned a Port Elizabeth surgeon a PhD in Health Professions Education from the University of Bloemfontein.

Netcare Greenacres general surgeon David Porter obtained an MBChB from the University of Bloemfontein in 1998.

He went on to specialise in surgery and received his FCS (SA) qualification from the same university in 2004.

He started practising at Cuyler Clinic in Uitenhage and did sessions at Uitenhage Provincial Hospital, where he headed the department of surgery.

"While I was working there I realised that the old doctors, who were confident to perform surgery, were fast retiring," he said.

"Faced with medico-legal claims, younger doctors were preferring to send patients to a specialist for simple procedures.

"This sometimes meant that even if you, for instance, cut out a skin lesion, the patient would have to travel to the city again if it turned out to be cancer and they needed another procedure."

Porter said he realised it would be useful to develop a short-learning and peer-reviewed course to teach general practitioners (GPs) in rural areas to do basic procedures like breast biopsies, the removal of skin lumps and emergency surgery.

As part of his thesis, he studied the different needs in the different provinces.

"Some of the doctors indicated a need to learn lifesaving surgery, especially for patients who were in accidents, so they could be stabilised before being sent to the city by ambulance," he said.

He compiled a list of about 25 procedures that GPs indicated they would like to learn and developed the short course.

"The University of Bloemfontein has an excellent skills laboratory, so we will start rolling out the programme there," he said.

Source: Herald

Source: I-Net Bridge

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