Twitter
Advertisement

dna exclusive: Special wing to attract more women doctors to surgery

Surgeons, in order to create awareness and attract more women medical students into their branch, have created a special women's wing. The Association of Surgeon of India (ASI) has created a special wing of Women Association of Surgeon of India (WASI) last week. Currently, 15,000 surgeons are associated with ASI, out of which only 700 are women. Now, WASI will go to medical colleges and start a sensitisation programme about the general surgery branch for women students.

Latest News
article-main
For representation purpose only
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

Surgeons, in order to create awareness and attract more women medical students into their branch, have created a special women's wing. The Association of Surgeon of India (ASI) has created a special wing of Women Association of Surgeon of India (WASI) last week. Currently, 15,000 surgeons are associated with ASI, out of which only 700 are women. Now, WASI will go to medical colleges and start a sensitisation programme about the general surgery branch for women students.

The decision of forming a dedicated women's wing was taken at ASI's 50-member governing council meeting in Chennai last week. Through this wing, they will also try to understand the issues which create hurdles for females to opt for General Surgery branch after MBBS.

Dr Santosh John Abraham, president, ASI and head of surgery department, Lourdes Hospital, Kochin, confirmed the move. He said, "In the meeting, we unanimously decided to create a dedicated wing for women. We don't want the surgery field to be dominated by male. we want them to share their ideas and thoughts on this platform. Generally, the number of women surgeons in any kind of surgery except gynecology is low."

Experts have differing opinions about the lesser number of female surgeons, but they all agree that the number should increase and the future situation should change.

Dr Neelima Kshirsagar, ex-dean of KEM hospital and national professor with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said, "It's true that the number of female surgeons is very less. Most of them are in gynecology. They prefer to work in this branch because they can easily handle female patients. But we have to encourage female students to get into the surgery branch."

Dr Jayshree Todkar, bariatric surgeon and convenor of WASI, said, "Everybody has different opinions about it; like surgeons have odd time schedule, emergencies, long surgery hours etc. Through this wing we will give exposure to women students. We will also have year-long programme which we will discuss in our next meeting."

Dr Sangeeta Pikale, past president of Association of Medical Consultants, said: "I don't think women are scared for long hours of surgery or emergency surgeries. In gynecology, we have to be alert all the 365 days a year."
 

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement