Abdus Salam Khan, MD FACPJanuary, 2016
It was a historic day for us. We were gathered in College of physicians and surgeons main campus in Karachi to create a historic event. What started almost five years ago was bearing the fruit in a short amount of time. The FCPS Emergency Medicine exit examination was to be conducted.
The faculty of Emergency Medicine gathered along with CPSP guests and officials to be the part of this event. Our external examiner was Prof. Dr. Patrick Plunkett who came from Ireland to be part of this history making. After the completion of the examination we talked about Emergency Medicine and also what we have achieved so far. We also talked about the road ahead and also about the struggle that we will face. It was clear that in short period of time emergency medicine has gone through the cycle of recognition and has established itself as a faculty in Pakistan.
People come and go, yet ideas stay and progress. A combined effort of like minded people against plenty of odds brought this field so far that we have started seeing a general interest of patients as well as the college and other physicians in its progress. It was a continuous effort and with very little help from physician community and Governmental institutions as well as policy makers. So you can imagine this FCPS part II examination was heartwarming signal for us and all our trainees who were facing skepticism from their colleagues and their families regarding the fate of the field that they chose as the career for life. I remember being the only supervisor in northern part of Pakistan and people used to question me about the future of emergency medicine. They were seemingly right in their questioning about the future, and me being not able to show them anything firm, but my commitment which obviously was mere words to some. So I used to have plenty of talks with no commitment from anyone to opt the training. With increasing faculty and addition of a few brave soul’s who opted the training, the journey started and resulted in this milestone.
This is the 5th year into the Emergency Medicine program since its inception and we have more than 30 residents with two programs offering training in emergency medicine. There are two other programs getting ready for the training. One of them is in public sector. While visiting different parts of Pakistan I am well aware of the level of emergency care that Pakistanis receive. As a member of Emergency Medicine faculty I am aware that our pace may be seen as slow and task ahead looked as enormous, but the gap had started to decrease and the momentum is building. We have covered some important ground and the road ahead may be long and bumpy, but with few road blocks making it easier than before. Our struggle for public hospitals participating in the training is far from a reality. We need a better work and help of the opinion makers and also the decision makers of the public hospitals to bring Emergency Medicine into their future plan and work with us for the sake of all Pakistanis to provide them with decent emergency care.
This objective of bringing the Emergency Medicine training to the public institutions seems like a rhetoric that has been chanted repeatedly by me and my colleagues, but it is a key to the better healthcare for the public at large. It is long due and needs to be looked at by either at the provincial level or at Federal level as one of the goals for the 2025. The goal is very simple yet profound. Put a trained person in every emergency department by year 2025.
This is my motto and this is my goal. If we make it a success then it is a dream come true for every Pakistani.
I could be reached at erdoc@shifa.com.,pk