Development of anesthesiology and medical service in KSA 1956-2011

In this historical report, a new light is shed on details of the development of anesthesiology and medical service in Kingdom Saudi Arabia 1956-2011. What Dr. Al-khawashki has done between the period of 1956-1980 was commendable. He has found himself and few anesthetists from Egypt and Pakistan in the front of huge task. The shortage of anesthetists worldwide and the increasing surgical specialties in Saudi Arabia, imposed a huge dilemma on the service. In order to face this problem, there was only one way to cover the continuous expanding surgical services by establishing technical institutes to produce anesthesia technicians able to work under supervision of consultants. This was known as the technician's era. It continued for a long period, but the changes were introduced from 1980 onwards by me. This was the era of the development of an up-to-date anesthesia service from 1980-2011. the first, developing the-state-of- the-art anesthesia services in the university hospitals. Second, the Saudi Anaesthetic Association was established under the auspices of the King Saud University. Third, this period culminated by starting the residency training programmes in the country and the Arab world. Moreover the Saudi specialty of anaesthesia and intensive care graduated over 60 specialists and has 98 residents up till now in the programme. Finally three subspecialties fellowships in critical care, cardiac, and pediatric anesthesia were established. The total number of Saudi anaesthetists jumped from one or two anaesthetists in the seventies to almost 300 in 2011. The numbers of consultants or senior registrar are over 160 and the rest are residents in the training program nationally and internationally.