Will help in reducing operating, recovery time of patients
Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Aug 28: With the commissioning of the Surgical Skills Lab, the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura today got the first-of-its-kind facility in North India aiming at upskilling the surgeons and students at the same time enhancing the patient care.
The Lab, after the training of the manpower is expected to enhance the patient care with the skilling of the doctors and other faculty members and is also expected to directly reduce the operating time as well as the recovery time of the patients.
The Lab was e-inaugurated on the occasion by the Chief Secretary, Dr A.K. Mehta in the presence of Director SKIMS, Dr A.G. Ahangar, Dean Medical Faculty, Dr Omar Javaid Shah, Head of the Department, General Surgery Prof Sameer Naqash, Prashant Krishnan of Medtronic which is supporting the initiative, along with Prof Rouf Ahmad Wani who was termed “man behind the show.”
The Chief Secretary said that the Government wants SKIMS to be at par with the other premier healthcare institutions across the country.
“There will be more of such facilities that will be added to SKIMS which will ultimately pave a way for it to be the best in the country,” Mehta said.
He said that with SKIMS catering to the maximum needs of the patients in the Valley, the Surgical Skills Lab is going to benefit a large number of people along with training the manpower across the Union Territory.
The Chief Secretary was told that the Surgical Skills Lab is going to be maiden all across north India and is at the same time going to help in decreasing the operating as well as the recovery time of the patients.
He was also told that it will help in improving the precision of the surgeons who will be trained and will also be allowed to carry out drills for trying out new surgical procedures before carrying out the same on patients.
Dr A.G. Ahangar in his address said that setting up the facility is no short of a “miracle” and it will help in improving the precision of a surgeon-which always remains a key while performing any procedure.
Prof Sameer Naqash said that SKIMS is now among the best 4 institutions across the country equipped with the facility of having a Surgical Skills Lab.
“As of now, even the AIIMS in Delhi does not have it and we having it with the help of Medtronic is a privilege,” he said adding that the facility will be open for both faculty as well as the residents who are willing to upskill themselves in various surgical procedures.
Prashant Krishnan who is the Senior Director and Head, Surgical, Patient Monitoring at Medtronic said that the facility set up at SKIMS is the future of surgery and can drastically shape patient care.
“This is our 4th site in the country and we are committed to imparting training to the doctors at the Surgical Skills Lab; and with the facility, we are aiming at improving the quality of treatment at SKIMS,” he said.
It is to be noted here that the project was lying static for the last more than 3 years due to several reasons and there was no headway achieved in setting up the facility, however, the related work was augmented resulting in the setting up of the facility at SKIMS.
The Skill Lab has been developed to aid surgeons to overcome the challenging learning curve to obtain laparoscopic expertise. The partnership will focus on the following main areas such as providing training, replicating real-world environments, using state-of-the-art technology and teaching methods to enhance their skills and quickly adopt a minimally invasive way of surgery.
It will also include prepping future surgeons, thereby adding value to health systems across J&K to address prevalent capacity and awareness barriers along with increasing patient access to various innovative therapies in the future.
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