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 |