Twenty-three candidates for the Fellowship of the College of Anaesthesiologists (FCA) examinations are undertaking their clinical written examinations today. Candidates are from Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  This has a been a great milestone for the College of Anaesthesiologists of East, Central and Southern Africa. 

The clinical examination is part two of the overall FCA exam. Part one of the exam was a written exam held on 7 October 2021. Part two was intended to be an oral clinical examination but due to the COVID 19 pandemic, a clinical written exam was held instead.

CANECSA has both Fellowship and Membership categories. See the CANECSA Training page for more information on how prospective candidates can apply for training.

See the “Training” page for more information.

Online application 2021-2022 for the CANECSA membership of the College of Anaesthesiologists (MCA) and Fellowship of the College of Anaesthesiologists (FCA) will be open from 1^st December 2020. Both training programmes are for a minimum period of two years.

• MCA is a certificate of competence in anaesthesiology; it is not an exit qualification and does not confer specialist status.
• FCA is an exit qualification conferring specialist status.

Training: Candidates will begin CANECSA training in January 2021 and will be eligible to sit examinations in late 2022. The training will be provided by CANECSA trained and accredited trainers.

Currently CANECSA is working with national regulatory bodies to accredit training institutions in member countries. The registration deadline for the MCA and FCA training programme will be December 31^st every year.

See the CANECSA Training page for more information and details of how to apply.

“This marks a milestone in Anaesthesiology training in East, Central and Southern Africa, and an important step on the road to providing high quality anaesthesia and critical care services to all people in the region, says the registrar” said Dr. Doreen Mashava, CANECSA Registrar.

The College of Anaesthesiologists of East, Central and Southern Africa is deeply saddened to announce the untimely death of Dr Edson Chikumba.

Dr Chikunda joined CANECSA as a Founding Fellow and served as the Chairman of the Finance and General Purposes Committee from 2014.

A memorial service will be held on November 21st. May he rest in peace.

HERE WE ARE – A LONG AWAITED MOMENT FOR CANECSA!

On October 7th, Membership (MCA) and Fellowship (FCA) candidates sat the very first written exams of the College of Anaesthesiologists of East, Central and Southern Africa (CANECSA). The College is thrilled to mark this important occasion in its history. “This has been a long-awaited moment for the College” noted Dr Doreen Mashava, CANECSA Registrar, during her remarks before the start of the exam. A total of 35 candidates sat for the online written examination: 11 Membership and 24 Fellowship candidates. The candidates come from Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The College has been preparing for this moment since 2009, where the idea of a College of Anaesthesia arose from the East, Central and Southern Africa Health Ministers’ Conference.

“The ministers noted that the quality of training examinations across the region was variable and the numbers trained were insufficient. Thus, the College was officially formed in 2011 aiming to advance education, standards, and research in safe anaesthesia and critical care for the people of East, Central, Southern Africa and beyond” explained Dr Mpoki Ulisubisya, CANECSA President, during the wrap up session with CANECSA country representatives. A governing body was formed including the Examination and Credentials Committee who were on the frontline preparing this exam.

“As we are making this historical milestone in terms of development of the College, you as the candidates you are sitting for the first time. The Membership candidates who will be successful for this exam will sit for another exam in the near future and the Fellow candidates will be having a clinical exam next year” said Dr David Polepole, Chair of the Examination and Credentials Committee during his opening remarks.

Our sincere thanks to our colleagues in the East Central and Southern African Health Community and all of our partners, particularly the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa, the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland, Irish Aid and the anaesthesiology societies from Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

CANECSA is now providing a dedicated webpage with information on COVID 19 for Anaesthesiologists – www.cancesa.com/covid with thanks to our partners, the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland.

Regularly updated information on COVID 19 for Anaesthesiologists is available here.

Regularly updated information on the COVID 19 pandemic in East, Central and Southern Africa is available here. This information is provided by ECSA-HC.

The inaugural CANECSA Membership and Fellowship examinations will be held in 2020. Examinations will be held in two parts – a written examination, which will be held in each CANECSA member country with registered candidates on October 8th. Candidates who are successful in the written exam will be invited to sit the clinical exam, which will be held in Lusaka, Zambia on December 7th and 8th. More information on the examinations is available here and examination registration information is available here.

A new multi-national anaesthesia partnership programme for East, Central and Southern Africa has been launched today. This programme is funded by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and aims to provide access to safer and more affordable anaesthesia care for those in need of surgery in the region.

Developed as a collaboration between the College of Anaesthesiologists of East, Central and Southern Africa (CANECSA), the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA), the Institute of Global Surgery in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), and the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland (CAI), the programme aims to build the capacity of CANECSA to address the most significant barrier to safe surgery in the region.

Announcing the programme, CANECSA President Dr Mpoki Ulisubisya said “There can be no safe surgery without safe anaesthesia, yet the number of professionals in this field is very low compared to the region’s population and its burden of disease. CANECSA aims to advance education, standards, and research in Safe Anaesthesia and Critical Care for the people of East, Central and Southern Africa to significantly scale up anaesthesia service in the region. The unique collaboration of four Irish and African training Colleges will support CANECSA to work towards health equality for all who are affected by current surgical conditions or require surgical and anaesthesia care in the region.”

Existing training models in place are not producing the necessary number of anaesthesiologists required to provide safe anaesthesia care. At present, the shortage is aggravated by the low number of trainers, a lack of formal training for trainers, the cost of training, and the lack of professional prestige associated with their training. Collegiate training through CANECSA has been identified as an important solution to the lack of anaesthesiologists in the region.

Beginning in 2020, CANECSA, COSECSA, CAI and RCSI will work together to establish training sites in the region, develop suitable curricula and hold internationally benchmarked anaesthesia Fellowship exams.

The programme builds on the well-established RCSI and COSECSA Collaboration Programme, and funding has been provided by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the period of December 2019 to November 2020. Through a range of joint initiatives such as this, RCSI and COSECSA are working to improve access to safe, affordable and more timely surgical care.

RCSI President Mr Kenneth Mealy said “We welcome the launch of this multi-national training programme in partnership with CANECSA, COSECSA, and CAI. The introduction of a programme such as this is a significant step towards the provision of safe and affordable anaesthesia services in the region. At RCSI, we are proud to be able to share our resources and expertise, working with partner organisations to deliver much needed programmes like this, with the ultimate goal of achieving health equity for all.”

Dr Brian Kinirions, President of the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland said: “ We are committed to harnessing the support of our global network of Fellows to deliver initiatives in low and middle income countries in line with the Lancet commission findings and UN Sustainable Development Goals to improve access to safer Anaesthesia and safer surgery. We welcome this partnership with RCSI , CANESCA & COSECSA to increase patient safety for all.”

COSECSA Secretary General Prof Eric Borgstein noted that “by 2020 the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) will have achieved its goal of training 500 surgeons in the region. This could not have been achieved without the help of RCSI and the support from Irish aid. Many more surgeons are needed in a region with the lowest ratio of surgeons per head of population in the world. However it has become clear to all in COSECSA that one of the biggest limiting factors to the expansion of surgery in Africa is the shortage of medically trained anaesthesiologists. COSECSA is happy to collaborate and make its 20 year experience of examination and training available to support the growth of its sister college CANECSA.”