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SASES Update: Past, Present and Future

President's Report

23 February 2015

2015 is well and truly on its way as we see out the first quarter of the year. This affords us the opportunity to reflect on the year that has past and look forward to what lies ahead.
Our society has truly evolved into a self-propelling juggernaut that is constantly evolving and improving in whatever way we can.

Last year saw the introduction of a third International Travelling Fellowship to our existing program. For those members who are unaware, SASES now offers its membership the opportunity to travel to an international surgical unit for a period of 2-3 months on a training fellowship. The fellowships are open to all our members and have largely been facilitated through our collaboration with various companies:

• The Karl Storz Fellowship is hosted by Dr Markus Walz at Straubing Klinik in Bavaria, Germany for 2 months.
• The Covidien Fellowship is hosted by Professor Willem Bemelman at the AMC in Amsterdam for 3 months. This fellowship has a colorectal focus.
• The Ethicon Fellowship is hosted by Professor Andre D’Hoore at the University Hospital in Leuven, Belgium.

Last year’s recipients were Dr Hugo Stark, Dr Zaheer Moolla and Dr Nelson Latakgomo. Their glowing feedback will be posted on the website shortly.

Look out for the advertisements for this year. The Ethicon travelling fellowship has already been advertised on our website, and the two remaining fellowship adverts will follow shortly.

The Red Cross Training Centre has now been established as a centre for national training (largely thanks to the tireless efforts of Professor Alp Numanoglu). We host various laparoscopic programs that cover suturing, cholecystectomy and appendicectomy. At present we are engaging with the College of Surgeons to ascertain if these workshops could be incorporated into the training curriculum of every registrar to ensure adequate exposure to laparoscopic training and techniques. In due course we are hoping to establish more units like this across the country to make this proposal feasible. Kindly refer to our website for upcoming workshops.

This year saw your society together with the Red Cross Centre take a massive leap forward in the appointment to Mr Clive Van Geems as the course co-ordinator at the Red Cross facility. Clive’s role would be to co-ordinate as well as host the workshops being held at the Red Cross centre. Clive’s other role is to actively seek sponsorship for the courses in an effort to reduce the costs to our members. We wish Clive (and Prof Numanoglu) all the best in this bold, new endeavour

Last year saw the inaugural meeting of Hernia Interest Group. They have since moved on to draw up a constitution as well as establish a working relationship with various companies from the industry. Together they are focused on establishing guidelines aimed at standardising and optimising hernia surgery for all. Look out for their guidelines in the upcoming national journals as well as the patient information brochures that will soon be freely available on our website. This little document is a colour illustration of what hernia surgery entails and provides useful need to know information to your patients. I encourage everyone to make use of this. HIG also has a session at the upcoming ASSA-SAGES congress in Durban from 7-10 August.

Our Private Practice negotiation has also proven fruitful, with SASES having already previously attained approval of the use of wound protectors. More recently we have managed to reverse a funder’s decision to not allow a SASES member to do a laparoscopic adrenalectomy. After SASES intervention this will now be reversed. Negotiations are still ongoing for the acceptance of laparoscopy rather than open procedures in the management of appendicitis and inguinal hernias.

Last year saw SASES and SAGES play host to the ISUCRS at our national congress in Cape Town. This has certainly proved to be one of our best attended congresses with over 900 delegates registered. SASES also took the opportunity to play host to Professor Willem Bemelman and Professor Andre D’Hoore as our visiting international speakers. Willem is a well-known friend of the society, having first attended the stand alone meeting at Champagne sports resort as well as hosting the annual Covidien Travelling Fellowship award. Andre is a new friend of the society having agreed to host to the recently established Ethicon Travelling Fellowship. Both of our visitors proved extremely popular and were very well received at the meeting. We look forward to seeing them again soon.

This year we will be participating in the biannual ASSA-SAGES meeting in Durban on the 7-10^th August. The program will be advertised shortly, and we are hoping for a diverse meeting focussing on topics relevant to the general surgeon from the various sub-specialities. As is always the case, we will be hosting a guest international speaker whose resume will undoubtedly leave you speechless. See you there.

Last but not least, SASES is proud to announce that we will once again be hosting a stand-alone congress in the Drakensberg from 27 – 30 October 2016. The program will be very similar to the last meeting we held in 2011 with a host of international speakers talking about topics ranging from their favourite operation to their worst, do and don’ts and most importantly simply liaising with our membership. Don’t miss this!

Masee Naidoo

 

President’s Annual Report – Sept 2014

Dear SASES members

Welcome to our AGM, and to the end of a busy but I believe productive year for your Society and its members. An election year AGM is an occasion to look back at what was achieved in the last two years, but also to plan for the future, and decide on the course that your Society should take and who should lead it. Thank you all for attending and ensuring that our society stays vibrant and relevant.

Training:

• A new three-month SASES/J&J laparoscopic fellowship to Leuven in Belgium has been created and a fellow chosen who will leave in a month’s time. He will spend time in the University hospital, with 2000 beds, more than 100 ICU beds and 4 general surgery theatre slates per day. This is a general laparoscopic fellowship, and according to the principal there, Prof Andre D’Hoore, the candidate should be able to start a fully laparoscopic service after completing the fellowship. This is an unparalleled opportunity, and I cannot praise the efforts of Bob Baigrie and Masee Naidoo from your Exco, as well as Leanne Cook from Ethicon enough. The amount of work required to get this off the ground is astounding, and it is purely through their perseverance that we are able to offer this wonderful fellowship to our members.
• You have heard from Emile Coetzee about his wonderful stay in Amsterdam.       Zaheer Moolla from Stanger is jetting off shortly on the SASES/Covidien colorectal fellowship to the AMC with Willem Bemelman. Hylton Strauss and the Covidien team has been tireless in ensuring the smooth operation of this fellowship.
• Heather Bougard spent a European summer in Germany, you have heard her report and from first hand experience I can vouch that she has really turned her experience during the SASES/Storz fellowship to Streubing into practice at Somerset Hospital. It is an absolute pleasure to work together with Storz on this fellowship. Hugo Stark has already been, and has started changing to a  laparoscopic service in George Hospital.
• We had a strong field of applicants, and am happy to have such quality candidates applying. We will shortly be advertising for next year. I would really like to see our more senior members apply for the fellowships as well. It is not only for fellows or newly qualified surgeons, and the scoring system actually favours older surgeons. It may be just what is needed to give your practice a mid-life kick-start! Yes, it means a long time from your current job, but what a sabbatical! What an opportunity! What an antidote for a midlife crisis!

Imagine the amount of work, time and perseverance needed to organize a fellowship, multiply it by ten, and one may approximate the true effort needed. To organize three and go through an election process for each is a gigantic task. For this I must thank Masee Naidoo and Bob Baigrie specifically and profusely. Well Done!

The SASES training courses have been well attended, and we are also involved with helping SASREG, our gynaecological sister society, with their suturing and myomectomy master classes. We have developed a definitive format for a two-day SASES Intermediate Course, which will cover lap cholecystectomy, appendicectomy and basic suturing skills. This will be presented to the College of Surgeons in October to be incorporated as a requirement for writing the final FCS exams. We have trained up faculty to present the course, and believe we now have the infrastructure available to offer it to the whole country. Please visit www.surgicalskills.co.za for the schedules.

In the meantime, our full suturing course will continue, as will our procedural courses and workshops on an ad hoc basis.

I must specifically mention Alp Numanoglu here, who is the Director of the Red Cross Hospital training unit and does much more than can be expected of anyone to make our courses run smoothly.

Alp has also been instrumental in creating and managing our Webinars, which has been a new project for SASES and works wonderfully. We have had excellent subjects and speakers, and wide participation. I urge you to make time to attend; it is clear, interactive and fully educational. All the old webinars are available on the website www.sases.org

We have received a wonderful selection of local and international videos for our Legacy video prize at this conference. It was something we started last year, and with the kind support of Legacy it now carries substantial prize money. All videos will also be loaded onto our website for posterity. Please keep this in mind throughout the year; when you are doing an interesting case, prepare it for presentation and maybe a share of the spoils.

The Hernia Interest Group, a subgroup of SASES, has been very active and we are proud parents of this fledgling grouping. In the year since birth, they have created a functional corporate alliance, written an excellent inguinal hernia guideline for South Africa which is in print, and Zach Koto has developed and started a roadmap for hernia training. Well done to Chairman Ravi Oodit and Vice-Chair Dino Sofianos. As SASES members, you are all automatically part of the HIG, and I would urge you to become involved in its activities; it addresses our commonest surgeries.

The formal SASES position statement on Laparoscopic Appendicectomy was published in August. This important document reflects current best practice, and sets the standard to which surgeons in South Africa should adhere. We believe that this draws a line in the sand in interactions with Medical Aids, and puts the responsibility and choice where it belongs: with the attending surgeon. The document was thoughtfully and elegantly put together by Dick Brombacher, helped by Eugenio Panieri. Please use it in your interaction with Funders; it has been endorsed by the majority of HOD’s of the academic institutions and is the definitive guideline.

Hospital groups are putting more and more pressure on surgeons to use equipment from specific device manufacturers, often with no justification apart from cost. We are concerned about this, as it is one more attempt to subvert our independence and ability to do what we consider best for our patients. SASES have therefore commissioned Elsabe Klink, a lawyer very well versed in medical matters, to draft a position statement on the rights of surgeons and their choices regarding the devices they use. It has been finalized, is a very comprehensive and compelling document, and is available on our website. There is also a draft letter that can be attuned to your specific circumstances. I hope this will be a big stick to carry in our negotiations with the bean counters. Thank you to our honorary Secretary, Dick Brombacher, for putting this together. See http://sases.org/wp-content/uploads/SASES-Position-Statement.pdf

Your Society has met with device manufacturers and medical aids in an effort to smooth the application of laparoscopic surgery. Although this is a time-consuming and onerous task, we believe that ongoing interaction is the way to eventual cooperation. In this vein, I must also make a plea to members to remain gatekeepers of applicable and efficacious surgical care. Laparoscopic surgery is, rightly or not, perceived to be plagued by the two C’s: Cost and Complications. The only way around this is to ensure that we are at all times safe and cost-conscious surgeons. Eventually, it is to the benefit of everybody.

Lastly: any Society is only as good as its members and Exco. I believe our Society is vibrant, and it is a real pleasure to interact with members. Our “face” and very able administrative secretary is Susan Parkes, and she makes the Society machine run so smoothly that one tends to forget all the hard work it requires. Thank you Susan.

The Exco members spend an enormous amount of time and effort in service of the Society, mostly unsung, and I would like to thank and commend each one of them for making this Society alive, interesting and innovative. They have become good friends and have been unfailing in their support during my presidency.   I had the opportunity to entertain them and their spouses in George for a weekend around an Exco meeting, at no extra cost to the society, I may add. I would like to again thank each and every one of them for their unique contributions.

It is also a time to say goodbye to 4 long serving Exco members. Pottie Potgieter has been giving his all for the Society for 16 years, tirelessly and unselfishly working to advance our discipline. Every member know and respect him. He is still writing the history of the Society for us, and makes the most beautiful scrolls for our visitors. Dankie Pottie, ons gaan jou mis.

Stephen Grobler became chair of SAMA’s PPC recently, where he will continue to work for all our benefit. His almost superhuman stamina in making his various societal commitments despite a busy private practice has become legendary. I am happy that his huge knowledge of medical matters will be used at SAMA.

Bob Baigrie has been instrumental in making this a vibrant and innovative Society, and his efforts have taken us to a different level. He was the driving force behind the fellowships, our website, enhanced interaction with funders and industry… The list continues. Thanks Bob, well done and you leave SASES better than ever.

Reniel de Beer has served as treasurer with distinction. His calm, well thought out contributions have steadied many heated exchanges. I grant him his rest, but we will for sure press on his number again.

It has been a lovely two years. Thank you for entrusting me with your Society.

Danie Folscher
 

President’s Letter July 2014

Dear SASES member

Our congress this year coincides with the ISUCRS international conference, and will be in the world’s favourite city, Cape Town, from 4 to 7 September 2014. The organizing committee has described the academic programme as the best ever seen in South Africa, and I am certainly looking forward to the input from all the international faculty, but specifically from our invited visitors. Professors Willem Bemelman and Andre D’Hoore are very special SASES friends, as they are also the custodians of the Covidien and Ethicon fellowships to Amsterdam and Leuven, respectively. As a Society, we will have the opportunity to thank them in Cape Town for this wonderful opportunity they are offering our members.

We have also invited Prof Tim Rockall from the MATTU in Guildford as visitor, but also to again present his excellent laparoscopic cadaver workshop prior to the congress. Those members who attended his previous course will remember that this was a high point of the SASES year, and I predict this will soon be filled.

The SASES/Legacy video prize this year is worth R14000 in prize money. We have set aside a whole session for videos, and this promises to be wonderful session. Entries are now open for budding Spielbergs.

Please have look at the programme at www.isucrs.co.za and register soon. This is not only the highlight of our year, the AGM and exco election, but also a chance to see friends and colleagues in the most beautiful city in the world!

I am looking forward to seeing you there.

Regards

Danie Fölscher

 

President’s annual report: Summer 2013/14

Dear SASES member,

Pliny the elder famously said: “There is always something new out of Africa.”  Your Society tries to live up to this proud tradition, and since my last report a few “news” have been created that will benefit our membership.  I am therefore privileged to report on the society activities as follows.

• A new three-month SASES/J&J laparoscopic fellowship to Leuven in Belgium has been created.  This will enable the fellow to spend time in the University hospital, with 2000 beds, more than 100 ICU beds and 4 general surgery theatre slates per day.  This is a general laparoscopic fellowship, and according to the principal there, Prof Andre D’Hoore, the candidate should be able to start a fully laparoscopic service after completing the fellowship.  This is an unparalleled opportunity, and I cannot praise the efforts of Bob Baigrie and Masee Naidoo from your Exco, as well as Leanne Cook from Ethicon enough.  The amount of work required to get this off the ground is astounding, and it is purely through their perseverance that we are able to offer this wonderful fellowship to our members.
• We had inspirational feedback from our 2013 Covidien and Storz fellows.  Emile Coetzee and Heather Bougard spent the European summer in Amsterdam and Straubing, Germany and had a fantastic time, coming back brimming with new skills and enthusiasm.  If you have not yet seen their reports, please read it on our website, www.sases.org .  It certainly makes me wish I could apply!
• The lucky recipient of the 2014 Covidien/SASES colorectal fellowship who will spend time with Prof Willem Bemelman in Amsterdam is Dr Zaheer Moolla who works in Stanger.  Hugo Stark from George is brushing up on his German to join Marcus Walz on the Storz/SASES fellowship.  Well done to these two members, chosen from a field of strong applicants.  Enjoy the experience!
• We now have three international fellowships, one purely colorectal to Amsterdam (3 months) and then two more general laparoscopic opportunities to Leuven (3 months) and Straubing (2 months).  This is open to all members, not only registrars and fellows, and I would like to specifically extend an invitation to our more senior members to also apply.  Yes, it means a long time from your current job, but what a sabbatical!  What an opportunity!  What an antidote for a midlife crisis!
• We are very excited about the formation of a formal Hernia Interest Group.  We had a meeting of interested surgeons at the last congress in East London, and from there it has grown into a full sub-grouping of SASES.  Ravi Oodit (chairman) and Dino Sofianos (vice-chair) have worked very hard to start the Group and maintain momentum.  They have managed to get buy-in from all the big device companies, and this grouping will fill a big void in surgery.  Please join if you have an interest in hernias and defects of the abdominal wall – it is free for members.
• The formal SASES position statement on Laparoscopic Appendicectomy was published in August.  This important document reflects current best practice, and sets the standard to which surgeons in South Africa should adhere.  We believe that this draws a line in the sand in interactions with Medical Aids, and puts the responsibility and choice where it belongs: with the attending surgeon.  It was initiated after a query by one of our members, Dr Brian Wilson from Newcastle.  We organised a well-attended session on lap appendicectomy at the 2013 congress, and after this the consensus document was thoughtfully and elegantly put together by Dick Brombacher, helped by Eugenio Panieri.  Please use it in your interaction with Funders; it has been endorsed by the majority of HOD’s of the academic institutions and is the definitive guideline.
• The above-mentioned congress in East London had an excellent academic programme, greatly helped by the attendance of our three visitors, Prof Tim Rockall from the MATTU in Guildford and Dr Ross Carter from Glasgow, joined by Prof Heine van der Walt as our first SASES national visitor.  The report is available on the website:  http://sases.org/sases-congress-2013-report/
• We also awarded our first Legacy/SASES video prize for the best video shown at the congress.  For the 2014 congress, this has grown very substantially, and first prize is now R8000, with a R4000 second and R2000 third prize.  So budding film-makers, start working…
• SASES has put a lot of time and money into snaring the ISUCRS (International Society of University Colon and Rectal Surgeons) congress for Cape Town from 4-7 September.  We are really looking forward to the combined meeting, which will also include SAGES.  There will be a very strong SASES component to the programme, and I urge you all to register early.  Cape Town is not only the 2014 World Design Capital, but has just been chosen by the New York Times as the number one city to visit in the world.  Absolutely no reason not to come and enjoy.  More info at www.isucrs2014.co.za
• It has been a busy year for SASES training.  Apart from the usual lap chole and suturing courses, we also presented our first cadaver based course in laparoscopic colorectal surgery.  This was a huge success, and we have again invited Tim Rockall to present it as a pre-congress workshop in September.  Be sure to register early, as this course was quickly oversubscribed last year.   We were also involved with, amongst others, the Albert Luthuli and Medunsa workshops.  Please visit www.surgicalskills.co.za for a schedule of SASES courses this year.
• Your SASES Webinars have become very popular, and more than 60 people attended the last broadcast on Redo fundoplication.  I am personally very excited about this venture, as it allows live interaction with colleagues for every surgeon in South Africa, no matter how remote.  Our next meeting will be on TEO and laparoscopic colectomy; be sure to join us!
• Hospital groups are putting more and more pressure on surgeons to use equipment from specific device manufacturers, often with no justification apart from cost.  We are concerned about this, as it is one more attempt to subvert our independence and ability to do what we consider best for our patients.  SASES have therefore commissioned Elsabe Klink, a lawyer very well versed in medical matters, to draft a position statement on the rights of surgeons and their choices regarding the devices they use.  I hope this will be a big stick to carry in our negotiations with the bean counters.
• Lastly: any Society is only as good as its members and Exco.  I believe our Society is vibrant, and it is a real pleasure to interact with members.  The Exco members spend an enormous amount of time and effort in service of the Society, mostly unsung, and I would like to thank and commend each one of them for making this Society alive, interesting and innovative.

Have a great and trouble-free 2014, and I look forward to seeing you at our courses and events and of course in Cape Town for the congress.  I leave you with another quote from Pliny the Elder, very applicable to South Africa: “The only certainty is that nothing is certain.”

Regards

Danie Fölscher

President

 

Annual Report 2013

Dear SASES member

It is 4 weeks before the ASSA/SASES congress in East London, and I really hope we will see many of our members there, also at the AGM on Saturday morning 16 March.

Our last congress 6 months ago in Durban was a big success.  The first SASES visitor from the Indian subcontinent, Prof Pradeep Chowbey, proved to be an excellent speaker with vast experience.  He and his wife also immersed themselves in the congress and society, and we have opened up important links with his Unit in Delhi.

We have exciting international visitors for East London.  Prof Tim Rockall is the Head of the MATTU (Minimal Access Surgery Training Unit) in Guildford, and also President of the ALSGBI (the British equivalent of SASES).  He stepped into the MATTU shoes of Prof Michael Bailey, a long-time friend of our society and very entertaining visitor to our congress at Champagne Sports Resort.  Tim is a colorectal surgeon and expert on laparoscopic training, and will share these insights with us.  He will also be presenting a one-day laparoscopic colorectal workshop at the Red Cross Training Unit after the congress, on Monday 18 March.  Booking for this is now open, and places are limited.  Go to www.sases.org for more info.

Dr Ross Carter is the current President of the Pancreatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and spent a year as fellow in Groote Schuur hospital.  He is a pioneer in the minimally invasive treatment of pancreatic disease and an excellent and entertaining speaker.  Both he and Tim will also present breakfast sessions, for which bookings are now open at www.assacongress.co.za.  See their biographies at www.assacongress.co.za/index.php/international-speakers

Last year was also an election year, and we bid goodbye to a long-standing exco member, Heine van der Walt.  Heine was one of the founders of SASES, and we owe him a debt of gratitude for his work through the years.  Please see his thoughts on “retiring” from the exco at www.sases.org/a-long-term-exco-member-bids-farewell-to-the-sases

However, we have not let him off that lightly, and he has been invited as our society’s national visitor for the East London congress, with a full list of talks, videos and breakfast sessions.

We were fortunately able to cajole Dick Brombacher into staying on for another term as Honorary Secretary, as it has indeed become unthinkable to run the society without his able and stabilizing influence.

Laparoscopic appendicectomy remains a major headache for our members, and therefore we will have a debate about it at our congress, including members of the medical aid industry.  Hopefully we can draw up a SASES position statement about it afterwards, allowing members to negotiate more effectively.

New exco members are Professor Zach Koto, head of Surgery at Medunsa and a committed “scopehead” and Dr Christine Jann-Kruger, fellow at Wits and very active in laparoscopic training.  Members will get to know them better at our training initiatives.

We identified training as our main thrust for the next two years, and your society has been pursuing this objective very actively:

1. The SASES training courses have really taken off in the last year.  We are focusing on two skills courses: the lap chole or intermediate course and the suturing and GI course for more advanced skills.  The latter is a two-day course, and it has been gratifying to see how delegates leave the course with the skills necessary for advanced laparoscopic work.  Alp Numanoglu, with the training unit at Red Cross (www.surgicalskills.co.za), has been tireless in supporting and developing this initiative.  Eugene Panieri and Bob Baigrie has been a great help in this endeavour. More than 1000 delegates went through the unit last year, and this year it is set to be even more.

2. Your society have engaged with the College of Surgery to make the training courses a prerequisite for the College exams.  At the upcoming congress a whole session is devoted to bile duct injury, an epidemic that does not seem to abate in South Africa.  I sincerely believe that this can be improved with a formalized training programme, and our courses aim to be a catalyst for this.

3 . We were very excited with our first webcast from the Surgical Skills Unit in November.  As far as I know, this was a first for South African laparoscopic surgery and there was also international interest.  Eugene Panieri presented “laparoscopic splenectomy”, and I was impressed with the quality and ease of use of the webcast system.  This is set to become a regular training feature, so please diarize 27 February at 6pm (That’s in a week’s time) to watch Rob Cywes in Jacksonville, Florida talk about “laparoscopic foregut and bariatric surgery” from the comfort of your study – or living room or bedroom, for that matter!

4. We also continue with master classes, like the colorectal course planned after our congress.  Masee Naidoo, your vice-president, together with Bob Baigrie and Adam Boutall,  have been working hard to organize the course and sponsorship.  It will be exciting, with the innovation of cadaver torso surgery used for the first time on our courses.  Book on the website.

5. Our two travelling fellowships remain an important way to increase the pool of expertise in the country.  Adam Boutall spent a very productive 3 months in Amsterdam, coming back brimming with enthusiasm.  Emile Coetzee, our 2012 recipient of the Covidien-SASES grant, will shortly follow him to Amsterdam, while Heather Bougard will visit Prof Markus Walz in Germany as the winner of the Storz-SASES fellowship.  These are very prestigious and well-funded scholarships, each to the value of R150 000.  I once again want to thank our generous industry sponsors for this.  My great thanks also to our Vice-President, Masee Naidoo, who runs the fellowship programme.

Applications for the 2013 awards are now open, go to www.sases.org/training-and-fellowships/ to register.

6. We have worked very closely with SASREG, the society for gynaecological laparoscopy, to draw up curricula and assist with courses in advanced laparoscopic surgery and suturing at the Red Cross Unit.  I trust this “cross-pollination” will be to the advantage of both our groups.

7. Reniel de Beer and Martin Brand has built up a wonderful article library on our website, free to members and a boon to making informed decisions.  See www.sases.org/journal-article-database

8. Our informal questionnaire at the AGM last year confirmed that many members require proctoring for specific procedures, and very gratifyingly also that many senior members are prepared to give of their time as proctors.  Setting up such proctoring will be a natural progression after the courses; it will however need a lot of administrative effort, as well as ways to remunerate the proctors.  At the moment, this is still just a dream.

Securing company sponsorship for congresses, courses and society activities is becoming increasingly difficult.  Our Society is in good financial stead due to the sterling work of the previous treasurer, Etienne Swanepoel.  He was a veteran and hard-working exco member, always prepared to go the extra mile for the society.  Reniel de Beer has very capably taken over the position, and the finances are in good hands.  However, we will have to find innovative ways to secure sponsorship for the many society activities.  I personally feel that the device companies have a very small pool of surgeons that allow them a very large turnover, and they should commit fully to the society and its initiatives.

Keeping with financials, we have strongly supported the Surgicom and Healthman representations regarding the HPCSA ethical tariff and the pricing commission, also sending a SASES endorsement to the HPCSA.  Our thanks to Stephen Grobler, Surgicom Director and one of our exco members, who put in many hours of work with this document.  A copy of this important documentation will be available on the website shortly.

Members would have noticed our new administrative address in the FoSAS head office.  Despite the few unavoidable teething problems, the central secretariat is now up and running, and I must give thanks to the very able Sue Parkes, who manages our membership on a day to day basis.

I look forward to seeing many of you in East London.

Kind Regards

Danie Folscher