The Hindu APSI president S. Raja Sabapathy addressing the 46th annual conference of the association in Coimbatore on Thursday. Chairman of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Coimbatore, B.K. Krishnaraj Vanavarayar (third right) is in the picture. Photo: K. Ananthan
46th Annual Conference of Association of Plastic Surgeons of India inaugurated
Branding Indian plastic surgery with quality and integrity as the core values is the need of the hour, president of the Association of Plastic Surgeons of India (APSI), S. Raja Sabapathy, said here on Thursday. Addressing the inaugural of the 46th annual conference of the association, he said that the task in hand was to work for the growth of the field and also ensure greater visibility across the country for plastic surgery. “It is our experience that service to patients brings incredible outcome. Therefore, an opportunity to serve must be considered as an opportunity to excel.”
“Indian patients are great value buyers. It is our experience (at Ganga Hospital here where he heads the plastic surgery department) in hand reconstruction. Most of the accident victims are poor and from the unorganised sector. But, they seek quality treatment,” Dr. Raja Sabapathy explained.
“High skills and maximum efforts must be the key words because low efforts can leave us at the mercy of market forces. We should not lose our core strengths. There is a thin line between advertisement and information and we need to handle this carefully.” The first step towards popularising plastic surgery as a service to society was in declaring July 15 the National Plastic Surgery Day and calling upon surgeons across the country to perform free surgeries on that day.
Association secretary Atul K. Shah said that taking a cue from the association in India, a world-level body of surgeons had plans to declare July 15 as International Plastic Surgery Day. The Union Health Ministry was planning more programmes in the area of plastic surgery education, but a lot of ground needed to be covered in meeting the demand for more surgeons. The availability ratio was 1,300 plastic surgeons for 30 million people.
Inaugurating the conference, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu N. Ram called for humanising medicine. “It is the most altruistic of all professions despite some instances of corruption and hyper-commercialisation.”
The greatest paradox of a rapidly growing economy in India was the lack of access to quality healthcare for the poor. “We lack in a social arrangement required for reversing deprivation in food and nutrition and healthcare. Efforts by the government to improve the situation have always been below the minimum requirement.” The benefits of economic growth had not translated into healthcare benefits.
Mr. Ram said too much dependence on technology had brought about a disconnect between the physician and the patient. There was an opinion that doctors did not touch the patients now; only the older generation physicians still did this. “Medicine cannot live by science alone.”
Mr. Ram also emphasised orientation for journalists in understanding medical science.
Chairman of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan B.K. Krishnaraj Vanavarayar, said the benefits of the knowledge explosion era should be harnessed for the good of society.
Mr. Ram presented the Plastic Surgeon for the Year 2011 to Sam C. Bose and Mr. Vanavarayar awarded the honorary membership of the APSI to pioneer in microsurgery Robert D. Acland.
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