Lesson from College of Physicians on surviving difficult times and becoming better than before
It was held amidst trying times – the looked-forward-to academic sessions of the Ceylon College of Physicians (CCP) on the theme ‘Bridging Gaps and Crossing Divides’.
A hybrid session, with physical and online attendance, there were around 200 participants on September 22 who had kept aside their stethoscopes to gather at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel for the inauguration ceremony. The sessions were held in collaboration with the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), London, United Kingdom.
Having taken over the mantle of CCP President on January 25, Prof. Arosha Dissanayake placed before the august audience what he and his council have achieved amidst a severe economic crunch and social unrest gripping the country, while also touching on the comprehensive programme of the “beautifully crafted” academic sessions.
Looking back at a country which has been battered and bruised by travails such as two youth insurrections, the tsunami, the 30- year war, the Easter Sunday carnage and the COVID- 19 pandemic, Prof. Dissanayake’s message in the light of the current crisis was that “we are a resilient nation”.
He dwelt on how the medical profession was “badly” affected – “long hours or days in fuel queues; unable to join such queues due to hospital work; not having cooking gas at home to prepare a hurried meal for the children before rushing off to grab elusive transport to get to hospital; having to stockpile food and worrying about an impending food shortage; playing our roles in political resistance movements asking that politicians who ruined the country be held accountable; struggling with 8- 10 hour power interruptions on a daily basis; where everything about tomorrow was uncertain……. with the rising anger of the people who resented preferential treatment for health workers, our lives were at risk in these queues”.
But quoting singer Billy Ocean, he stressed that “when the going got tough, the tough (CCP) got going”.
Going ahead with the traditional academic activities, the CCP had also set in motion fresh initiatives including the ‘Cutting Edge’ series in which overseas experts elaborated on the latest developments in the management of medical conditions; the ‘Peripheries to the fore’ programme which provided a platform for physicians from hospitals in the provinces to showcase their work in limited resource settings; the ‘ Pearls of Wisdom’ programme tapping into the minds of senior colleagues; and the ‘Collegia Unitum Scientia’ (Colleges United in Science) programme where the CCP went beyond the sister colleges to link with non-physician colleges to help develop a more holistic approach to patient management.
Prof. Dissanayake said that “bridging gaps” with non- medical profes
When Sri Lanka ran out of soluble insulin, the CCP’s donation of a large stock saved lives. When kidney transplant patients had no tacrolimus, an immunosuppressant drug, the CCP’s collaborative effort with the Sr Lankan Medical Association of North America saved the day.
sional associations was very successful. One programme planned with the Bar Association of Sri Lanka extended to four and also resulted in the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) inviting the CCP to conduct a ‘Healthy mind and body programme’ for newly-recruited judges, which it did with the Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists as a partner.
Referring to ‘Save Lives Sri Lanka’, he said that it is an ambitious project launched in collaboration with other specialty colleges to raise funds from overseas well-wishers for medicines in short supply in state hospitals. When Sri Lanka ran out of soluble insulin, the CCP’s donation of a large stock saved lives. When kidney transplant patients had no tacrolimus, an immuno-suppressant drug, the CCP’s collaborative effort with the Sr Lankan Medical Association of North America saved the day. The funds thus collected also helped provide desferrioxamine, the iron-chelating medicine, for patients with thalassaemia.
“More remains to be done,” said Prof. Dissanayake, adding that all these efforts can be attributed to resilience, which means not merely surviving difficult times, but using these times as a catalyst to become better than before.
The chief guest at the inauguration, Prof. Nalin De Silva, expert on nanotechnology, spoke on the dire need for Sri Lanka to move forward on the fronts of new technology under ‘Nanotechnology and Medicine’ and guest-of-honour Sir Andrew Goddard, RCP’s Immediate Past President joined online to talk on the ‘RCP’s role in supporting health crises’. The CCP Oration on ‘A glimpse of fever, bites and stings from bed to bench: A journey through decades’ was delivered by Prof. S.A.M. Kularatne.
An interesting item on the agenda of the academic sessions that followed was two schools of thought on ‘Should the CCP ( as an organization) play a role in political movements? Aragalaya (the struggle) and beyond’. The two sides, not their personal views, were presented by two CCP past presidents, Dr. Sarath Gamini de Silva and Prof. Panduka Karunanayake.