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I have just sent you a few thoughts about the topic. After writing and submitting my comments, I opened my latest BC Medical Journal and found it contained the article "Availability of surgical services in rural BC". It was gladdening to read that the year I retired, 2007, programs named enhanced surgical training and obstetrical surgical skills training for GPs were initiated in BC. I was unaware that this had been done. They basically address some of my concerns, as they target GPs, enabling them to gain the abilities needed to provide back-up for general surgeons practising in communities that I would define as rural and remote.
The obstetrical surgical programs are available in Surrey, Winnipeg and Thunderbay. They are 6-12 month programs. I was fortunate to be able to train on the job, gaining my skills in the remote community in which I worked without having to leave family and patients for a stretch of time. The local surgeon trained me directly by repeatedly scrubbing as the assistant while I performed the C-sections, tubal ligations, D&Cs and so forth. Perhaps such local training could be incorporated as part of an enhanced obstetric surgery certificate. The main concern is to make GP C-section available for such times as the surgeon is out of town.
Rereading what I submitted, the 3 feet of fresh snow sounds like an exaggeration, but 5 feet actually fell Saturday to Sunday on one occasion. The RCMP got me to the hospital.Competing Interests: None declared.References
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