World Anaesthesia Day commemorates the first successful administration of an anaesthetic in 1846 by Dr.William Thomas Green Morton. This ranks as one of the most significant events in the history of medicine. The advent of anaesthesia made it possible for surgery to be performed.
This enabled a vast number of diseases to be cured. The rapid development and advancement of anaesthesia, made it possible for surgery as a specialty to expand and develop rapidly and into many areas.
The College of Anaesthesiologists and Intensivists of Sri Lanka, is the organization, in Sri Lanka, which lays down standards, carries out training and educational programs. The College whose membership consists of Consultant Anaesthesiologists also advices the government on required drugs and equipment and performs technical evaluations on the request of the government.
The College has two faculties, the faculty of critical care and faculty of pain. Consultant Anaesthesiologists bear the responsibility for the provision of Anaesthesia, managing the intensive care units, providing pain relief, including for labour, cardio pulmonary resuscitation, and resuscitation in trauma.
For the first time in the history of the College, the World Anaesthesia Day would be celebrated with a walk, which hopes to draw the attention of the public to the role of the anaesthetist, and the factor which is of global concern to all anaesthesiologists and patients, the provision of safe anaesthesia.
The working agenda of the College council, headed by its President Dr. Kanishka Indraratna, is “Improving Outcome and Safety “in Anaesthesia. The College is privileged to be hosting the 12th SAARC Associations of Anaesthesiologists meeting in February next year and the theme for the whole SAARC region would be improving outcomes.