Weaver Shell | Valencia, Feb 12 (EFE) and due to the “brain drain” and the fact that the places in this specialty do not cover all the territories, there is a shortage of them in “practically all” hospitals in the country.
In an interview with EFE, this professor of Surgery at the University of Valencia and head of the Section of the Hepato-Bilio-Pancreatic Surgery Unit of the Clinical Hospital of this city stresses that in surgeons “egos” are “a defect” and a “radical enemy” because, he assures, “they can never forget” that the center of their profession is “to benefit a person who is asking for help” and that during an intervention they “lead a team.”
excellent training level
“MIR training in Spain is very good, it is excellent, not all countries have it,” says Sabater, who adds that the “loyalty” of Spanish surgeons goes through the stabilization of positions and because they have “conditions decent jobs” because, if not, “it is difficult to prevent them from leaving”.
It points to the “excellent” level of training of Spanish surgeons, so much so that when they go abroad to complete some formative aspect “it is normal for them to be asked to stay” in that country.
Regarding the current deficit of surgeons, he affirms that “several hundred more” would be needed, although to know the exact figure the Spanish Association of Surgeons is requesting information from the autonomous communities to be able to present it to the Ministry, which in his opinion is the one who should coordinate that lack of staff.
Sabater points out that the deficit problem does not only affect surgeons, but that it “encompasses everything” since there is also a lack of nursing staff, anesthetists or orderlies, and despite this, he adds, many hospitals “are continuously operating morning and evening”. to reduce waiting lists.
Qualities of a surgeon
Prudence, patience, courage, temperance, calm, tranquility, good judgment, good psychological and physical preparation (because the operating room is long and very demanding), tenacity, persistence or resilience are, in the opinion of Luis Sabater, some of the “essential conditions » that a surgeon must gather.
“Egos, and egos are seen in many surgeons, are a radical enemy of the good surgeon, an absolute defect, it is not a virtue” and it is “disastrous”, asserts Sabater, who adds that the surgeon “leads a team, never can be alone.”
“All your preparation and everything you are doing is because there is a person who is asking you for help, he has gotten into a closed forest and you have to get him out of it, with technology or whatever you want,” he emphasizes.
robotic surgery
Although Spanish hospitals are well equipped from a technological point of view and in all communities there are plans to implement robotic surgery, “in the not too distant future” this technology will be “in all hospital centers”.
Sabater, who is part of the Technical Committee on Robotic Surgery set up by the Ministry of Health to guarantee equal access for patients to this care service, explains that he has the feeling that the same thing will happen with this technology as happened with laparoscopic surgery. in the 90’s.
“First it was a more restricted surgery and, over time, it has been seen to make things so easy and it is so good for patients that it has taken hold. It will be the same with the robot, it will shorten surgical times and improve the stay and it will be an indispensable aid”, he stresses, adding that he hopes it will not replace the human surgeon, for whom this technology will be an instrument that improves their conditions.
Recognition of subspecialties
He regrets that some surgical subspecialties are not recognized and explains that while smaller hospitals require more versatile surgeons who can handle non-complex interventions, in first-level hospitals these subspecialties are required to perform operations with the “maximum level of complexity.”
“One of the keys to the success of complex interventions is the volume and the center where they are performed,” he explained to EFE, adding that when a hospital wants to open a unit from the Association, an accreditation has been established to unify the minimum requirements that must be achieve.
Ensure scientific quality
One of the objectives of the Scientific Committee that presides over the Spanish Association of Surgeons is to ensure that both the courses that are scheduled as well as the activities of the congresses and the books that are published “have a minimum rigor of scientific quality.”
Thus, the Scientific Committee ensures that the Association, which currently has 5,500 members, does not endorse anything that does not have a level of updating and study inherent to all surgeons, and also to avoid intrusion in the case of other specialties. that may be on the limit between general surgery and other close specialties.
As he explains, surgery is a specialty that implies a care component but also a part of research, updating, innovation and teaching, and he affirms that today “it is not acceptable that a surgeon, after finishing his residency, does not have his publications and their lines and courses of investigation».
“A surgeon is not only dedicated to operating patients, it is a specialty with a greater dimension”, affirms the professor, adding that it is a specialty that “advances at such a speed that it is very difficult to be up-to-date and you necessarily have to be in an environment that allow it to be done” to maintain the level of care that society demands.
Challenges of the specialty
One of the challenges facing the specialty is to ensure that all surgery “becomes minimally invasive. Anything that is large open surgeries, little by little we must replace them. That is the way and there can be no going back.
In addition, he adds, “everything that comes is very technological”, with the integration of 3D technologies or artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, for which a specialist “adapted to the times and to current technology is demanded, without minimizing the scientific part and without forgetting that the center of his profession is to benefit a person ».