On 22 January 2016, rural physicians from across Western Canada gathered in Banff, Alberta to learn more about Enhanced Surgical Skills (ESS).
“Family docs who provide surgical services, usually in very remote parts of (usually Western) Canada, have never had any professional development or continuing medical education courses for them,” says Dr. Stuart Iglesias, on why he helped found the course. “It’s been bigger ever time we did it, it’s been more popular, and it’s been better.”
This one day course is designed for GPS/ESS Surgeons in conjunction with the SRPC Plastics Techniques, the Emergency Medicine for Rural Hospitals course, and the Endoscopy Skills Day for Practicing Endoscopists course.
The program updates rural ESS surgeons with current methods, facilitate informal communication and encourage FP-Specialist networks within ESS services.
More that that, according to Dr. Nadine Caron, the course shows “where [ESS] fits into the rural surgical care for Canadians, the crisis in rural surgical care, where it stands right not, and how ESS is going to fill that gap as long as we continue to work together as the cohesive group we have right now.”
“Our goal is to make sure that rural Canadians can get the medical care they need as close to their homes as is practical and safe,” says Dr. John Soles, President of the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada. “This meeting reflects the importance [that] we have people that are able to provide those services to rural Canadians.”
For more information, visit http://www.srpc.ca/ess2016/