El difícil camino de la Anestesiología

Abstract

In less than fifty years Chilean anaesthesiology has made vertiginous progress. From the nobel anesthetic assistant in the 40’s, to the present day medical expert with a wide range of tasks and skills, able to assess the perioperative surgical risks, as well as to attend a postoperative multi-systemic failure (shock). This great leap has been made possible by the effort of anaesthetic doctors and health authorities which have understood the great importance of this speciality, not only for surgical purposes, but also to decrease the rate of surgical morbi-mortality. Yet, almost at the dawn of a new century, the labour opportunities for these specialists has been suddenly halted by law that limit the hiring of new medical staff. Eventhough most hospital directors recognize the need to have more anaesthetic specialist, this will not happen without an adequate understanding of the key issues by the National Congress, which is the ultimate site for policy making and national budget approval.