The
above mission is now in its second year of operation thanks to a new donor from
Canada who wishes to remain anonymous. Two volunteers have completed assignments
in Palestine in the months of April and May 2012. The residency program in East
Jerusalem and the West Bank has now expanded to 33 residents. A new program
opened in Ramallah this year and they have 8 residents. We plan to extend an
invitation to them to participate in our current arrangement with Makkased,
Rafidia and Al-Ahli hospitals. A total of 19 new residents have signed up for
residency training in Palestine this past year. This represents a major
increase in interest in anesthesia in Palestine.  Rafidia Hospital now has 8 residents and 6 of
them are first year.  Four residents were
successful in the Palestine Board Exams last December. At least two more
volunteers have agreed to volunteer in 2012 and three more volunteers have
signed up for 2013 so far.  The Dean of
Al-Quds Medical School in Palestine has recently been appointed Minister of
Health in Palestine. Dean Abdeen has been a strong advocate of the PATM from
the beginning

 Two
residents and one consultant anesthesiologist from Palestine presented papers
at the recent World Congress of Anesthesiologists in Buenos Aires. All three
papers were well received and excellently presented. This was the first time
that Palestinian anesthesiologists presented papers at an international
convention.

 The
PATM has recently established a liaison with Egyptian Society of
Anesthesiologists (EgSA) who has pledged to advance our program in a number of
ways. They have offered scholarships to anesthesiologists in Palestine to
attend the All Africa conference scheduled for April 2013 and the Pan Arab
conference scheduled for September 2013 in Beirut. They have also offered
fellowship training for 2 candidates to complete fellowship training in
subspecialty areas in Assuit University. We anticipate that members of EgSA
will volunteer in PATM in the near future.

PATM
has now almost completed two years of operation. We have two additional
volunteers scheduled for Palestine this year and three more scheduled so far
for 2013. We still have openings for volunteers in March, April, May, September
and October of 2013. So far we have volunteers from 5 different countries
including Canada, USA, Sweden, Chile and Australia and we have scheduled a
volunteer from the UK in February 2013. If you are interested in volunteering
please contact to Ms. Ruth Hooper at WFSA and ask her to forward an
application. The e-mail address is: [email protected]

 A
special thanks to all those individuals who have already volunteered and have
enhanced the education of many young Palestinian anesthesiology trainees. These
are Hafez Sami MD. USA, Franco Carli MD Canada, Haydn Perndt MD. Australia,
Danielle Kietzmann MD Sweden, JF Asenjo MD Chile/Canada, Bobby Lee MD Canada

Respectfully
submitted

BT
Finucane MB FRCPC

Coordinator

PATM
CASIEF/WFSA