Address of the President of the PAFSA, Pr Patricia YAZBECK
12th Pan Arab Congress of Anesthesia, Intensive Care and Pain Management
Dubai, United Arab Emirates,
Thursday September 27, 2018
Opening Ceremony
Your Excellency, Humaid Mohammad Obeid Al Quatami, Chairman of the Board and General Director of Dubai Health Authority,
Dr Jannicke Mellin-Olsen, President of the WFSA,
Dear Presidents and Representatives of the Arab Societies of Anesthesiologists,
Dear colleagues,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great honor for me, as President of the Pan Arab Federation of the Societies of Anesthesia, to chair today this prestigious meeting.
Please allow me to start by thanking the United Arab Emirates Society of Anesthesiologists for hosting us for the second time in the beautiful city of Dubai, first in 2016 when the 11th Pan Arab Congress gained a huge success and now in 2018 when I am sure it will be even better.
As many of you know, the PAFSA was founded more than 30 years ago by pioneer Professors, some of which are here with us today.
Dear Professors, PAFSA Establishers and Past-Presidents, we are forever grateful to you for creating an organization aiming to fulfill the hopes and ambitions of the Arab Anesthesiologists for a better future.
But unfortunately for many years, it was difficult for the Federation to achieve its goals. This was due to many reasons : gaps in the constitution and bylaws, lack of communication between societies and members, and most of all, dislocation of some of the societies due to tragic political and security problems involving the whole region. Despite several attempts to overcome these problems ( meetings in Beirut 2004,Tunis 2005, Alger 2006, Sharja 2009, Jordan 2014, ……), all of them failed to build a solid system for the PAFSA. Even the Pan Arab congresses encountered many cancellations rendering impossible meetings and discussions between members.
When a new board was elected in 2016 under my Presidency, we decided to attack the same problems again and try to find solutions that could build up the foundation of the PAFSA and consolidate it on solid grounds, as a new attempt to “save the building from demolition”.
This was done first, by giving the Federation an “official regional and global identification”, by registering it in the Arab Medical Union and by strengthening the bonds with the WFSA in which we were already a regional section.
Ad hoc committees were created and started actively to elaborate a strategic plan to guide us and to modify the existing bylaws to be able to face the emerging problems.
In front of this distinguished assembly, I would like to thank all the coordinators and members of these committees ( Dr Ahmad El safi from Sudan, Dr Mansour Nadhari from UAE, Pr Yehia Khater and Dr Maher Fawzi from Egypt, and all the committee members…. ), for offering the PAFSA much of their time and efforts and finally giving us updated constitutional documents which will hopefully be the cornerstones for achieving stability and continuity of the Federation.
A special effort was also made by other committees to develop specific PAFSA quality and safety guidelines. A new website and a facebook page for the PAFSA were also created, leading to better communication and interactions between the anesthesiologists of our region and spreading interesting educational material.
But all this is still not enough ! It can only be considered as a step forward that will enable us future perfection.
What we still need is a special effort not only from the board and committees, but also a strong and active involvement from each member society and from each one of you. An important step is to fill the information and communication gaps that exist in the Arab World. Data collection is mandatory not only data concerning the member societies and their offices, but also information about specific training and practicing systems and about the major problems facing anesthesia care in each and every country of the region.
We are sure that many educational and professional problems, as well as disparity in anesthesia care coverage exist in our countries. We might not be aware of these problems as it is in our culture to show only the bright side of things.
In order to help and be active we first have to identify the specific needs.
So, I count on you all to be active in communicating and sharing your problems and ideas through your society representatives. I am confident that the new board will take them in consideration and try to implement satisfactory actions.
In the mean time, I wish you all a fruitful meeting and a pleasant stay in the wonderful city of Dubai.
Pr Patricia YAZBECK
PAFSA President
