A Vancouver surgeon

views the Soviet Union

By A. M. INGLIS, M.D.
F.R.C.S. (C)

N the latter part of November,

1962, I had the great privilege
and joy of visiting the Soviet
Union for two weeks to see their
institutes of medicine and partic-
ularly their centres of orthopaedic
and traumatic surgery.

The invitation was extended
through our Canada-USSR Asso-
ciation and myself, along with
two other Canadians, were the
guests of the USSR-Canada So-
ciety with all expenses paid while
in the Soviet Union. A well plan-
ned itinerary was worked out
well in advance and through the
services of the Friendship Socie-
ties I visited ‘fifteen medical in-
stitions in Moscow, Leningrad
and Minsk.

I was always provided with an
excellent interpreter and talked
freely with Soviet orthopaedic
surgeons and professors. I saw
their ‘hospitals and saw them
operate and went around their
wards to interview the patients
and study the cases along with
the charts and the x-rays.

Professor Blokhin, the director
of the Central Institute of Orotho-
paedics and Traumatology in
Moscow, was most helpful and
answered all my _ troublesome
questions. He went out of his
way to show me their successful
use of cadaver bone, blood ves-
sels, tendons, fascia, etc., to
replace their gross loss due to
disease and injuries in patients.

This is a practice we have not
developed in our country yet due
to false prejudice against the use
of cadaver materials. Also, he
showed me their new premises on
the outskirts of Moscow, whose
- wards and equipment were as
modern and abundant and fine
as those seen in our new hos-
, Pitals in Canada. The day we
“looked through, the medical stu-
derits were enthusiastically un-
packing the new furniture and
equipment and the nurses were
cleaning and setting up the new
operating rooms and wards.

As seen in other hospitals
throughout the Soviet Union, and
particularly in their Scientific
Research Institutes, some of their
equipment was more highly tech-
nical and intricate than ours and
certainly more abundant. Great
emphasis has been put on the
use of electronic medical appar-
atus for diagnosis and therapy.

Their standard operating room
light is better than ours and is
fitted with a photo and TV
camera.

* * *

At the Sklifasovsky Institute for
First Aid in Moscow I met Pro-
fessor Tarasov who told me the
history of the beginning of the
use of cadaver blood in the Soviet
Union and how they have been
using it now for the past thirty-
two years. It is better and safer
than donor blood because it needs
no anticoagulant to stop it from

clotting and it can be better con-

trolled because there is a State
law since before the revolution

which enforces universal autop-

‘sies. Eight bottles of blood can
be collected at once which makes
it most satisfactory for massive
transfusions such as is not in-
frequently necessary in severe
accident cases with gross blood
‘loss and shock.

Permission from the relatives
is obtained but actually is only
rarely refused on religious _

In November, 1962, Dr. Alan Inglis of Vancouver, a
leading orthopaedic surgeon, travelled extensively in the So-
viet Union. The following account of his journey, and what
he saw in the first Socialist land, will be of great interest to
our readers.

GREAT CARE GIVEN TO SICK IN THE
SOVIET UNION. Photo shows doctors greet-
ing Soviet test pilot Georgy Mosolov, who
set up a few world aviation records, after

grounds. I had the good fortune
to actually witness this technique
which is very simple and of
course done by sterile means.
Only 15% of the blood taken has
to be thrown out because of un-
suitability for one reason or an-
other. Although the use of cada-

‘ver blood is not widely accepted

in the western countries, yet there
are some isolated centres that
are beginning to use it in spite
of religious protests.

* * *

At the Institute of Surgery on
the Heart and Great Vessels in
Moscow I saw their lavishly
equipped new hospital which is
only three years old. and has a
staff of 740 to look after 250

and scientific
back from the

patients. There are 140 doctors.
The Director told me that no limit
is put on their expenses and they
feel they have all the equipment
they need.

I saw their apparatus for auto-
matic suture of blood vessels and
for ligation of the root of the
lung which simplifies and shor-
tens complicated surgical opera-
tions and opens up a new field
of organ transplants by permit-
ting speedy and effective joining
of organs so that blood may enter
them immediately.

Their operating rooms are large
with high ceilings and are not in
constant use the way ours are
here. Wound infections are rare
they said and I saw no post-

his recovery following a serious accident
in which he was nearly killed.

Aitentive’
care virtually brought him
dead.

operative wound infections in the
Soviet Union in all the patients
I. saw in the wards of the hos-
pitals. Their equipment was the
most modern and included an
automatic breathing machine
from Sweden though most appar-
atus was made in the Soviet
Union or the Socialist countries.
* * *

At the Second Institute of Medi-
cine in Moscow named after Piri-
gov I was given a full account of
how doctors are trained in the
Soviet Union. The Institute is not
connected with the University but
is associated with hospitals in
Moscow to which it gives scien-
tific leadershp. There is a six-
year course, much the same as
ours, and they graduate approxi-

N appeal to all democrats
and anti-fascists to protest

Coup in Iraq threatens
country’s independence

immediately against the ‘“reac-
tionary, imperialist coup d’etat”’

SAUDI ARABIA

sacchari be
sone ree

SS

PERSIA

ey

15, '1963—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 6

in Bagdad was made this week
by the Anwer Mustafa, a mem-
ber of the Political Committee of
the Iraqi Communist Party.
“Disguising itself behind a na-
tionalist facade, this coup d’etat
is directed against the independ-
ence of the country, and against
the gains of the July revolution
which put an end to the imper-
ialist,: reactionary regime and:
to the Bagdad Pact, now the
Cento Pact,’’ his statement said.
It pointed out that since the
coup d’etat on Friday hundreds
of Communists had been arrested.
An order given by the National
Council of the Revolution on Bag-
dad Radio called on the army,

police and armed gangs organ- —

ized on the model of the nazi S.S.
to annhiliate Communists and
patriots wherever they found
them, >

mately 600 doctors each year.
There are two Institutes of Medi-
cine in Moscow with its popula- —
tion of 8% millions which gradu-
ate 1,200 doctors each year, and
one Institute of Dentistry. All
education is free, including books
and equipment.

One afternoon I visited the ©
Medical Workers’ Union in Mos- —
cow and learned that all medical ©
workers including doctors, nurses,
orderlies, technicians, etc., be-—
longed to the Medical Workers’
Union, unlike our Medical Associ-
ations which consider themselves —
professional and have no relation ;
with the trade unions. :

Generally, doctors made good

salaries though a little less than | -
They only — ue
work 5-6 hours a day for six days: | —

scientific engineers.

a week, a total of 33 hours a week.

They are not allowed to be on |

duty more than nine hours a day

because they are not considered |

efficient after that.

The Soviet Union has a high |

ratio of doctors to the population.
There is one family practitioner
to every 2,500-3,000 adults ap- —
proximately, and cne_ paedia-
trician to every. 800-1,000 children. —
They work in polyclinics where
there is continuous service.
* * oe

Other institutes visited were the —
Institute of Health Education in ~
Moscow, the Central Scientific —
Research Institute of Prosthesis
and Prosthetic Manufacture in

Moscow, the Vishnevsky Institute |

of Surgery where I saw their
cybernetics computor to assist —
them in their research work, the —
Orthopaedic Clinic for Children
in Moscow where I learned about —
a new and simple splint for con-—
genital dislocation of the hips and —

which I am now using on two of %

my patients in Vancouver.
In Leningrad I also saw their

Institutes of Children’s Ortho- —
paedics and of Prosthesis and for
Trauma and saw new and differ-

ent ideas wherever I went. In A
Minsk I visited their 700-bed q
General Hospital and saw 4a ©

Polyclinic with an establishment — : :

of 78 doctors.

With my two Canadian com-
Vincent Coulson from
and Ross |
and
with our invaluable and most
competent host Mr. Igor Zabro

panions,
Hamilton, Ontario,
Warder from Surrey, B.C.,

din, the General Secretary of the |
USSR-Canada Society who accom —
panied us

factory and a heavy truck factory

at Minsk. Also at Leningrad we |

enjoyed the ballets Solveig and

‘Swan Lake and the circus, and in 3 E

Moscow we saw a Ukrainian opera
at the magnificent Palace of i

Congresses.
* * *

Generally, I was most impress- q Bs

ed with the way human nature —
has been changed in the Soviet

Union to a selfless society where

people have learned to work for —

the common good. They knoW |
where they are going and want |

only peace so that they can carry —

on to their goal of communism. —

The experiences I had in visit
ing the Soviet Union were it |

valuable to me as an orthopaedi¢ — d

surgeon practising in Canada and
I am most grateful to the USSR
Canada Society for the unlimited
trouble to which they went i
order to grant my more th
anticipated wishes to meet
orthopaedic confreres there.

3 e

to Leningrad and a
Minsk, we also visited a radio |