Pakistan Society of Emergency Medicine had its elections in Aug 2021. The new cabinet has taken oath. It’s a process that in itself brings enthusiasm in the members and results in providing stability to the society. Participation of members was a big success. It felt like we have plenty of people now thinking about Emergency Medicine in Pakistan and are willing to come together and do collaborative work.
As part of the outgoing cabinet we did a very good job of lifting the society up the ground and then giving it wings to fly. The new cabinet will be able to build upon the foundation and will create a much greater impact. The canvas of Emergency Medicine in Pakistan is slowly expanding and becoming complex like any other Specialty. The issues will arise and will be sorted. The work for the cabinet will be increasing.
In the last three years Society faced plenty of challenges. The biggest of them was existational challenge. We needed to make sure we survive. We needed to make sure we continue existing and are relevant for our colleagues and our patients. The public opinion about Emergency Medicine is not very favorable due to plenty of reasons that we have always talked about. The biggest reason is the ownership. All doctors use this area yet no one owns it. The result is continuation of disarray and inherent chaos. The next big reason is lack of proper understanding about the need and role of Emergency Medicine trained staff and limitations of that role. The realization that Emergency department has a very specific, limited and very important role in the management of patients is slowly sinking into the minds of other specialties. The new cabinet has to work hard on this perception, as it is directly linked to the expectations that patients and colleagues have from us. Plenty of times we hear from our colleagues the comments like “So what actually you guys do”. We are not an independent specialty, yet we have an identity of our own. This theme needs to be propagated so our collaboration would be very meaningful where each one would know the role of other.
The cabinet needs to work on few other important facts. After educating doctors and patients regarding our roles and limits, we need to explain the expectations that they should have from us. Similarly, people should also be educated about the steps to ensure best care provision in the emergency department. Each aspect of interdependency needs to explores and addressed. That will create the teamwork that is needed for the safe and effective care of all patients in the emergency department.
The new cabinet needs to collaborate and work to establish the training of Emergency Medicine in large tertiary care hospitals whether Public or Private. As the number of Emergency Medicine doctors needed can not be trained by a handful of institutions. PSEM has always been seen as supporting society and we will continue this path for the development of the specialty and the increasing training departments to make sure all patients coming to the emergency department gets to see a trained EM doctor.
Doing research is utmost important as it helps us understand our own population issues, as well as the solutions which will be beneficial for the general public. A research culture is needed to help elevate the understanding and level of care based upon our own data. The society can play a greater role in it.
I am confident that the new cabinet will work together and utilize the collective wisdom and team energy to come up with the best outcome. My energies and prayers for all.