The International Relations Committee (IRC) of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland has announced the launch of the Overseas Anaesthesia Fund as part of a campaign for greater access to safe anaesthesia and pain relief in the developing world.
More funds for overseas anaesthesia
Anaesthetists are in critically short supply in many parts of the world. Training programmes for both physician and nonphysician anaesthetists often lack basic educational facilities. For example in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, the ratio of medical anaesthetists to patients is often less that one in a million, with many anaesthetists working without owning a single textbook.
The increased amount of funding provided through the Overseas Anaesthesia Fund will enable the AAGBI to give greater support to anaesthetists working in countries where there are insufficient anaesthesia services to ensure that the standards of care taken for granted by professionals and patients in industrialised countries can be provided throughout the developing world.
