Anaesthesia World President in New Zealand

Anaesthesia World President in New Zealand

A Canadian doctor awarded that country's highest civilian honour for her work in improving anaesthesia education and safety in low income countries is in New Zealand next month.

Dr Angela Enright is President of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists and is visiting New Zealand to open the New Zealand Society of Anaesthetists annual scientific meeting on November 2.

Dr Enright, who was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in this year's New Year's Honours List, is also a member of Lifebox, a global charity working to save lives through safer surgery.

Lifebox, of which the World Federation is a founding partner, is a charity working to reduce death rates in operating theatres around the world by providing low-cost pulse oximeters, and training on their use, to low-resource countries.

Pulse oximeters would be recognised by the lay person as the small clip typically attached to a finger or earlobe during surgery. They monitor the level of oxygen in a patient's bloodstream and sound an alarm as soon as the slightest unsafe change is detected.

Lifebox statistics show 77,000 operating rooms worldwide are without pulse oximeters, meaning tens of thousands of lives put at risk, as without adequate monitoring, a routine operation can be fatal.

Dr Enright is very active in the project, as is her New Zealand colleague Professor Alan Merry of Auckland. Both are members of the Lifebox Foundation Board.

As President of the World Federation, Dr Enright is also very much involved in voluntary work the Federation and its members, including the New Zealand Society of Anaesthetists, do to provide anaesthesia education to low and mid income countries. Christchurch anaesthetist Dr Wayne Morriss is very much a part of the work being done to fill the desperate need for such training in developing countries including Vietnam, Mongolia and neighbouring Pacific countries.

Dr Enright is available to be interviewed while in New Zealand.

More information about Lifebox can be found at www.lifebox.org.

ENDS

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