Lecture on learning disability 

ANAESTHESIOLOGISTS ARE SCARCE IN INDIA : DR. RADHAKRISHNAN 

He was speaking at the 54th annual national conference of anaesthesiologists held at JSS Dental College in city yesterday.

"The Society will be opening the college with private participation, producing a few thousand anaesthesiologists every year," Dr. Radhakrishnan said and added that anaesthesiologists were not to be found in the hospitals in rural areas and hilly terrains, by which more than 60 per cent of the rural populace are affected by this.

"The scarcity of experts is not restricted to anaesthesiologists alone, but in other fields of medicine too. The experts' service is restricted for the benefit of urbanites alone," he said and emphasised the need to extend the same to rural areas also.

"We strongly oppose the Government's move to introduce an 18-week crash course in anaesthesiology," he said and opined that it would not produce qualified anaesthesiologists. "Instead, the seats in PG courses must be increased, by which the scarcity of experts will be overcome to some extent," he felt.

Dr. P.S. Prabhakaran, Vice-Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, speaking on the occasion, said that 600 different medical institutions came under the purview of the University. "But the cause of alarm is that none of the institutions concentrated on research," he said.

He exhorted the medical students to conduct more research works and also urged the teaching faculty to divert more attention towards research works.

Medical Education Minister Dr. V.S. Acharya, who was to be the chief guest of the function, was conspicuous by his absence.

ANAESTHESIOLOGISTS WORKSHOP HELD 

The conference will be inaugurated at 5.30 pm tomorrow by Dr. V.S. Acharya, Minister for Medical Education. About 4,000 delegates from India and abroad are taking part in the event.

Dr. B.D. Satyanarayana, Medical Superintendent, Krishnarajendra Hospital inaugurated the workshop this morning, in which about 600 delegates participated. Dr. K. Veerabhadrappa, Medical Superintendent, JSS Hospital, was the chief guest. Dr. B. Radhakrishnan, National President, Indian Society of Anaesthesiologists presided.

The theme of the workshop was: "Ventilation, pain and difficult airway" and conducted by Dr. Ghedoo, Chief Anaesthesiologist, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, Dr. U.S. Ravindra, Professor, 'Kshema', Mangalore and Dr. Chandrashekar, Krishnarajendra Hospital, Mysore.

Organising Secretary Dr. P.N. Vishwanathan and Treasurer Dr. Sanjit were present.

RACE CLUB EYE HOSPITAL TO START GRAFTING FACILITY 

PULSE POLIO PROGRAMME ON JAN. 7, 11 IN CITY 

JSS DENTAL COLLEGE GETS HI-TECH UNIT 

District Governor Rtn. S. Sadananda Chatra, Rotary International, District 3180, handed over the mobile dental clinic keys to B.N. Betkerur, Executive Secretary, JSS Mahavidyapeetha.

Dr. B. Nandlal, Principal, JSS Dental College welcomed and explained the facilities availble like conventional and cosmetic fillings using high speed drill and removal of dental deposits using ultrasonic scalers operatable through compressor, various surgical procedures like extraction, X-Rays and other treatments for complete oral rehabilitation that can be rendered to the public through mobile dental clinic.

Rtn. Dr. Bheemesh, presided. Rtn. S. Bhanuchandran, Rtn. Raghavendra, Rtn. M. Azeezulla and other Rotarians of Rotary Mysore Midtown were present.

Dr. C.V.K. Reddy, Vice-Principal, Professor and Head, Department of Community Dentistry, explained the oral health programmes conducted by the department for school children, destitute homes, orphanages, old age homes, slum-dwellers and general public. The existing peripheral centers are at Medar block and Central Jail in Mysore while centers at Suttur, Gumballi and Thithimathi serve the rural community, he said.

He thanked Rtn. S. Sadananda Chatra, District Governor, Rtn. Dr. Bheemesh, President, other Rotarians of Mysore Midtown and especially Rotary International for this humanitarian gesture. He also thanked Past President Rtn. Azeezulla and Rtn. Ramakrishna who were responsible for contacting the Rotary International for matching grants and making the dream a reality.

CME programme 

PULSE POLIO PROGRAMME ON JAN. 7, 11 IN CITY 

'Raging controversies in modern medicine' 

MYSORE MEDICAL COLLEGE TO GET AUTONOMY BY DEC. 14 

The Government order granting autonomy to Mysore Medical College (MMC) will be issued before December 14th, announced Dr. V.S. Acharya Minister for Medical Education.

The Minister was speaking after inaugurating MAA "Utsav' on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of MMC Alumni Association in the Platinum Jubilee Auditorium here yesterday.

The autonomy was being granted to the college as well as Krishnarajendra Hospital, its teaching hospital, either on Dec. 13th or 14th, he said adding that although the autonomy was to be granted earlier, the order got delayed because the date for the Chaumndeshwari by-election was announced in the meanwhile.

Recalling the fact that the college earned its autonomy largely due to the untiring efforts of Dr. Raghothama Rao, the former Principal, the Minister explained that in spite of the Government considering the issue of autonomy to the college even when Siddharamaiah was the Deputy Chief Minister, the decision got postponed at the last moment because the then Government lost power.

Speaking to reporters after the function, the Minister explained: "Once the college gets autonomy, it will have no restriction on taking decision relating to recruitment of the required personnel, purchase of equipment needed for research as well as raising the standards of
teaching and also develop-mental programmes. However, the onus of making good use of the autonomy entirely will be on the college".

Autonomy would greatly help in generating revenue and strengthening the institution financially. He was confident that the MMC would make progress by overcoming the various short-comings bugging the institution at present and offer services of higher quality to the
public, the Minister said.

After autonomy was officially granted, Dean-cum-Director would be appointed as the head of the institution and even his name would be mentioned in the government's order, the Minister disclosed, adding that in the next two years or so, the other teaching hospitals in the State would also be granted autonomy according to their merits.

Dr. Kantha S. Jadhav, retired Vice-Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore, Dr. B.C. Vastrad, Principal, MMC, Dr. Kolar N. Murthy, an NRI doctor were the chief guests. Dr. C. Rajan, Secretary of Alumni Association and Dr. M.S. Kempe Gowda, Treasurer were present.

MCI TEAM INSPECTS K.R, CHELUVAMBA HOSPITALS 

A delegation of three doctors from Medical Council of India (MCI) visited Cheluvamba and K.R. Hospital in city today and conducted an inspection.

Dr. Kannan and Dr. Sherval conducted a thorough inspection of the K.R.Hospital while Dr. Asha Shaha inspected Cheluvamba Hospital.

During the inspection, MCI delegates detected numerous lapses in the hospitals and instructed the medical officers to rectify them.

The delegation was shown round the hospital by Dr. B.D.Sathyanarayana, Superintendent of K.R. Hospital, Dr. B.C. Vasthrad, Principal of Mysore Medical College, Dr. B.G. Sagar, HoD of
Orthopaedics, Dr. Vasudev Naik, Dr. Geetha Avadhani, HoD of Surgery, Dr. H.K. Hanumanthappa, HoD of Dermatology, Chief Matron Lalithamma and other officials.

The MCI delegates reprimanded the hospital administrators for not displaying the bed numbers in the wards and instructed them to provide Teaching Area in each ward, with a prominent signboard.

They also found the Central Oxygen Unit in the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (ICCU) out of order and took the hospital staff to task for the lapse.

The hospital's Blood Bank was found to be violating the MCI norm of not possessing the mandatory permit from the Drug Control Authority of India, without which they are not supposed to operate the Blood Bank.

The visiting delegates were amused to be confronted by an inpatient who presented them with a polythene sachet containing about 30 bed bugs, much to the embarrassment of the hospital staff.

The patient claimed that he had collected all the bugs from his bed since the previous night. This time, it was the turn of Chief Matron Lalithamma to be pulled up by the visiting medicos, giving warning.

The inspection went on till afternoon. Later, the MCI delegation will take a count of the existing hospital staff on the basis of their photo-identity cards and discuss various problems with them.

The delegation will inspect the Mysore Medical College tomorrow and then leave for Bangalore in the afternoon.

MCI TO VISIT MYSORE MEDICAL COLLEGE TOMORROW 

A team of officials representing Medical Council of India (MCI) is scheduled to visit the Mysore Medical College here tomorrow.

During their visit, the officials are expected to study the teaching as well as non-teaching infrastructure apart from the basic facilities provided to the students of the college.

The officials are scheduled to stay overnight in the city and on Dec. 9, they will inspect the infrastructure at K.R. Hospital and Cheluvamba Hospital.

Although the Central team was scheduled to visit the city on Nov. 18 itself, it was postponed in the backdrop of the model code of conduct stipulated by the Election Commission.

Autonomous status for Mysore Medical College soon: Acharya 

The 50-year-old medical college will now be called the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute. Five major government hospitals in the city — Victoria, Bowring and Lady Curzon, Vani Vilas, Minto Ophthalmic Hospital and the SDS Tuberculosis and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases — are affiliated to BMC.

According to the Minister for Medical Education V.S. Acharya, a government order in this regard would be issued in a couple of days. "But we have granted autonomy to both the colleges. The appointment of director of the two institutes will take some time. Till then, the principals will continue as the directors," he told The Hindu .

He said that autonomy would pave the way for faster recruitment of staff in the colleges, which have a shortage of faculty. Dr. Acharya said that autonomous status would be granted to Mysore Medical College in a few months.

T. Rajeshwari, Principal of Bangalore Medical College, said the institute was one among the top ten medical colleges in the country and autonomy would certainly improve the conditions in the college.

"The autonomous status will help us in bringing in a lot of changes that will help in the development of the institute and things will work faster now. Earlier, there was delay in decision-making for any development work, but that will not happen anymore," she said.

She added that one of the immediate steps would be to recruit additional faculty, as there was a staff crunch in the college. "We have 150 postgraduate and 150 undergraduate seats in the college and we are presently not planning on increasing the number of seats. The focus will be on increasing the staff strength," she said.

HONOUR FOR DR.S.N. MOTHI 

Dr. Mothi, Master Trainer for Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP), was part of the team that wrote the Paediatric HIV guideline which has to be followed by all the paediatricians treating HIV / AIDS children.

He has trained paediatricians in Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra besides Karnataka in treating children living with HIV / AIDS.

Jail inmate excels as surgeon! 

The reason for his landing in the jail has taken the back seat. Now, he is adored by 4,900 inmates of the jail and staff. He attends to patients in the jail round-the-clock, be it for simple ailments like cold and fever or even surgeries.

Thanks to Basavaraj, the minor operation theatre in the jail is bustling with activity now. The inmates need not be shifted to Bowring or Victoria Hospital for minor surgeries as Dr. Basavaraj is ever-ready with the scalpel.

Basavaraj, who is undergoing sentence for the last 18 months has provided treatment for about thousand inmates and performed surgeries on over hundred patients. He is so adept in medicine and surgery, even jail officers receive treatment from him for various ailments instead of going to some other doctor.

Background

Basavaraj hails from Lakkihalli of Hosadurga taluk in Chitradurga district. After schooling in his village, he studied PUC in Tumkur, MBBS in Davanagere, MS from Bangalore Medical College and FMAS from Delhi. Acclaimed as a super speciality doctor, Basavaraj could have etched a career in Newzealand or Britain, but chose to serve in District Hospital in Chitradurga.

He got married when he was 29 and the worst-ever thing happend within four months. His wife committed suicide and Basavaraj was found guilty of harassment for dowry. The High court sentenced him for seven years in prison. Initially, he was lodged in Chitradurga jail. Based on his behaviour, knowledge and medical skills, the jail officers decided to shift him to the Parappana Agrahara Central Jail, where he has today become the most loved one for the last 18 months.

Able hand

Surprisingly, the Chief Health Officer of Parappana Agrahara Jail, Dr. Vijayakumar was Dr. Basavaraj's student. When Vijayakumar was a house-surgeon in Bangalore Medical College, Basavaraj, doing MS there was teaching also. Having known his skills, Vijayakumar says "Basavaraj is a great helping hand in the jail hospital and is a very good surgeon."

Night shift

Owing to shortage of doctors, there was none in night shifts. Basavaraj has filled the void and the inmates are relieved. He treats about 20 patients every night, says Vijayakumar.

Provides peace