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Reports from Boards / Committees
This is the first newsletter in the year of Tiger. May I on behalf of the Council, wish you all the best in the year to come. It is customary to make plans at the beginning of a year. There are several College-related events that should be worth marking down on your diary. The 1998 ASM in Anaesthesiology will be held as usual in December. The Organising Committee chaired by Dr. K.F. Ng is going to be held in 5th to 6th December. Also the First International Congress of Academy of Medicine will be held from 26th-29th November 1998. Academy has offered a group registration discount to Colleges. There will be one free registration for every 20 registrants before 1st August 1998. We are working out the logistics and will let you know in the next newsletter. The next important event to take note is that ANZCA will hold the 2001 ASM in Hong Kong in conjunction with our College, and with the support of Chapter of Anaesthesiology of the Academies of Malaysia and Singapore. Prof. John Low has been appointed to co-ordinate the meeting. The Academy and her Colleges will be going into a new era after the recission of Bylaw 16 in October 1998. Some of us may have the misconception that Bylaw 16 only deals with the recognition of private practice as training. In fact, this Bylaw allows admission of Fellows other than those who have gone through the six years of proper supervised post-registration training approved by the Academy. The recission of Bylaw 16 will have far reaching effects other than not recognising private practice as training. Many nominations to Academy Fellowship from our College will be affected and I would like to draw your attention to all those. After October 1998, the only Bylaw that governs admission of Academy Fellows will be the new Academy Bylaw 2.4. This Bylaw requires six years of supervised post-registration training, together with passing an Intermediate Examination where appropriate, and passing the Exit Examination or Exit Assessment conducted by the relevant Academy Colleges for admission to Academy. A Hong Kong element of training is thus emphasised. It is important that Hong Kong should have its own system of training and assessing specialist, otherwise the Academy and Colleges will be serving no useful function at all apart from being a rubber-stamp. Hong Kong is small only in terms of geographical size. In terms of population, Hong Kong has about one third of the population of entire Australia. Similarly in terms of the number of doctors and hospitals that we have, we definitely justify a unique system of our own that is comparable to world standard. As far as compliance to Bylaw 2.4 goes, Our College will be requiring all applicants for College Fellowship to go through the Exit Assessment after October 1998. College will be conducting the Exit Assessment shortly after October 1998 ( please refer to the document on Exit Assessment published in December 1997 Newsletter ). However, there will be instances where some anaesthetists will not be able to satisfy Bylaw 2.4 after October 1998 due to a variety of reasons, for example they might have spent some time in private practice or they might not be willing to go through Exit Assessment. If you can satisfy existing Bylaw 16 now and would wish to be admitted to the Academy eventually, you might have to consider taking some action now. Academy has set 15th September 1998 to be the deadline for such nominations before the recission of Bylaw 16. College has set an earlier deadline for processing all the applications, which will be 15th August 1998. Please send in your applications for Fellowship before the due date if you are interested to be admitted to the Academy before Bylaw 16 is rescinded. There are many others who may be affected differently, including those who have been admitted as College Fellows, but for some reasons did not elect to be nominated for Academy Fellowship. Again those who could be admitted to the Academy now under Bylaw 16 will no longer be able to do so after October 1998, even though they may have possessed a College Fellowship very early on due to the change of rules. If they want to be admitted to the Academy, likewise they have to send in their applications to the College before 15th August 1998 for nomination to Academy Fellowship. What about those who cannot satisfy all the entry requirements at 30th September 1998 even under Bylaw 16 for Academy admission? Academy has made a special one-off provision here to allow these doctors to complete the training requirements and be awarded the Academy Fellowship. This is the additional training programme detailed in the Academy notice contained in this newsletter. Each additional training programme will be worked out between the individual doctor and College and will be individualised and approved on an individual basis by the Academy. To enter into this additional training programme, you must register with the Hon. Secretary of College, Dr. P.T. Chui before 30th June 1998. This deadline is different from the deadline specified above and is set much earlier because of the time needed to process and the time taken to agree on an additional training programme. There is not much time left before the Bylaw will be rescinded. I would advise those of you who are not yet Academy Fellows to give this issue some further thoughts. Please do not hesitate to contact me, Dr. T.W. Lee or Dr. P.T. Chui if you have got further problems.
Dr. CT Hung
The Hong Kong Academy of Medicine Building will be completed in July 1998 and the refurbishment of the Office of the Hong Kong College of Anaesthesiologists will start soon after that date and will be ready for relocation in September 1998. All Fellows & Members will be advised on the new address, telephone, and facsimile number as soon as possible. Hong Kong Academy of Medicine Building ,
Reports from Boards / Committees Board of Accreditation (Chairman: Dr C Yuan) The Pain Management Units at the Queen Mary Hospital and the Prince of Wales Hospital were inspected on the 27 February 1998. The inspection reports would be presented to the Council of HKCA for approval of accreditation of the training posts for Diploma in Pain Management, Hong Kong College of Anaesthesiologists. The following training units were assessed for an increased in anaesthesiology training posts. Council approved the following:- Training unit Previous posts (1996) Current posts approved Starting date KWH 8 posts each 2 years 10 posts each 2 years 1.1.1998
Board of Examination (Chairman: Professor Cindy Aun) The external examiners for February/April Intermediate examination are Dr Peter Lillie from ANZCA and Dr John Alexander from RCA. There will be no examiner’s meeting this time. Instead Dr P Lillie will give tutorial on Final Fellowship examination topics on the 2 April at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Block S, 10th Floor, Room 1010, 4:00pm to 6:00pm and Dr John Alexander will speak on "The Ethics of Research in Clinical Practice" on 4 April 1998 09:30am to 10:30am in Prince of Wales Hospital, 3rd Floor, OT Seminar Room. All are welcome.
Education Committee (Chairman: Dr TW Lee) A scientific meeting will be held on 21st April 1998 . Guest speaker is Professor Fredric A Berry (sponsored by Dept of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, CUHK and GalxoWellcome, Hong Kong. Title of the talk is "Fluid and Electrolyte Management in Paediatric Patients" at Hospital Authority Building 147B Argyle Street Kowloon. CME- 22 local Fellows have not submitted their CME record for the year 1st July, 1996 to 30th June, 1997. A reminder has been circuited separately. Please note that it is a legal requirement to have satisfactory CME for Fellows to remain on the specialist register. Otherwise our CME programme has been running quite well. 11 Fellows did not have the average of 30 points for the first year. These can be made up in the next two years. Exit Assessment and Vocational Training Guide - A meeting with supervisors of training was held to explain the revised VTG and new exit assessment. If trainees have any problems please feel free to discuss with your supervisor. The College is considering putting college documents in a CD ROM. That will include the VTG and curricula. Pain Management SIG - The first Pain Management Special Interest Group meeting was held on 25th February, 1998 at the Prince of Wales Hospital. It was attended by 20 Fellows and Members. Two cases were presented and was followed by a journal club. There was ample opportunity for interaction between the presenters and the audience. The next meeting will be held in May. It will be hosted by Tuen Mun Hospital.
Pain Management Committee (Chairman: Professor J Yang) The Pain Management Units at Queen Mary Hospital and Prince of Wales Hospital were inspected in February. The two Units have approved training posts for Diploma in Pain Management and examination will be at end of 1998.
Registration for Fellowship Admission for Doctors Who May be Affected by Rescission of Bylaw 16 The Academy at present admits Fellows under either Bylaw 2.3 or 16. A resolution by postal ballot was passed in November 1997 repealing Bylaw 16 (to be effective on 1 October 1998) and amending Bylaw 2. The Academy notes that some doctors who are now in the process of satisfying the admission requirements under Bylaw 16 may be affected by the rescission. In this regard, the Academy Council decided that a one-off registration exercise be conducted to help those who may be affected.
Doctors who already possess a currently recognised higher qualification but are still short of the required training under Bylaw 16 should pay attention to the following:-
Fellows shall have:
Council approved admission of the following as Members of the College: YAU, Kwok Keung Anthony
Council approved admission of the following as Fellows ad eundum: YAU, Kwok Keung Anthony
Consultants Dr PP Chen – Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital
Date : 21 May 1998 Agenda :
Lecture after AGM is going to be delivered by Professor Michael Cousins Sponsored by Astra
INTERMEDIATE FELLOWSHIP EXAMINATION EXAMINER’S MEETING
FINAL FELLOWSHIP EXAMINATION TUTORIAL
Final Examination in Intensive Care 1998 Written papers 3 August 1998 (Mon) Examination Venue Examination Fee Application forms are available from Supervisors of Training or Hon Secretary
2nd Meeting in May 1998 to be hosted by Tuen Mun Hospital |
