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Report on the 5th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Primary Care Surgical Association
The PCSA held it’s fifth scientific meeting and AGM at Kilkenny on September 23rd and 24th.
At peak registration, some 145 doctors, mostly GPs but including a number of community
based consultants, gathered at the plenary sessions. There were six overseas delegates ,
members of the Association of Surgeons in Primary Care in the UK.
The ambition this year, as previously was to reinforce education and skills for doctors
retraining or engaging with skin surgery for the first time, as well as to those with a well
established surgical practice.
This year, the scientific meeting proper was preceded by a dermoscopy masterclass which
ran from 09:30 to 15:30on the first day of the event. This intensely informative programme
was also designed around the needs of beginners and advanced or improving
dermoscopists. The material was taught by Dr Stephen Hayes a GP and Specialty Doctor in
Dermatology from Southampton and Dr Jonathan Bowling a Dermatologist from Oxford,
using a mix of formal lectures and case discussions in plenary and smaller groups.
Participants were provided with a complete download of the teaching materials and
additional clinical learning resources.
Following the masterclass, the scientific meeting proper was launched with a lecture on
facial surgery by Mr John Curran a plastic surgeon in Kerry and the first public report of the
HSE/ICGP Accreditation Research Project by Dr Ailis Ni Riain of the ICGP.
The concluding section of the first day consisted of a selection of workshops on ellipse
excision, simple grafts, vasectomy and absorbable sutures. These one hour long sessions
allowed the participants to practice simulated surgery and to engage interactively with the
tutors in developing or refining their skills. Each delegate attended a choice of two of the
four workshops.
The guest of honour at the conference dinner was Dr Ronan Fawsitt , Kilkenny GP and
national leader in hospital liaison, who welcomed the meeting to his city and went on to
provide fulsome encouragement to the PCSA membership in their efforts to innovate and
build links with each other and with the hospital service.
The second day of the conference commenced with a parallel series of talks for foundation
and advanced practitioners before the coffee break. The foundation group had talks on
haemostasis, planning surgical care and lesion recognition, taught by Dr Sylvia McKenna a
GP, Dr Tony O Sullivan GP and Dr Geraldine Morrow a Dermatologist in Dublin and Kilkenny.
Meanwhile, the advanced group heard Dr Catherine Gleeson a Cork based Moh’s surgeon
on micrographic surgery, Dr Mairin McMenamin a Dermatopathologist on collaboration
with the pathology service and Mr Michael Collins of Travelmedia.ie on marketing a surgical
service.
The Keynote address was delivered by Dr Brendan O Shea , Director of the Postgraduate
Resource Centre at the ICGP. Brendan revised the history of community surgery in Irish
general practice and focused on the potential of inter-referrals to allow GPs deliver a wider
range of services in ambulatory care. Brendan’s positive vision chimed with the optimism of
Dr Ronan Fawsitt the day before. The themes of collaboration , cooperation, confident
innovation and quality assurance resonated with an enthusiastic audience.
The third Dr Ross Ardill Prize awards followed . Nine papers were presented on a range of
topics, typically describing a practice enhancement or quality assurance undertaking.
Several trainee projects featured this year reporting on the issue of training in procedural
skills and the patient perspective on GPs providing surgical services.
Prof Vijay Kumar, President of the ASPC adjudicated with Dr Catherine Gleeson.
The winning entry was a paper describing an adaptation of the Morbidity and Mortality
conference approach to skin surgery and vasectomy by Dr Kevin McCarthy from Cork. The
prize, including an educational bursary from A. Menarini Pharmaceuticals, was awarded by
Ms Mairead Ardill who kindly attended the meeting again this year.
Following lunch, the association’s AGM allowed for an interactive discussion of the various
projects in which the PCSA is engaged. New officers were elected and Dr David Buckley, and
Dr Christy O Rourke received special thanks for taking the lead in providing another
excellent conference. Dr Sylvia McKenna introduced the freshly relaunched Association
website www.PCSA.ie.
Dr Gavin Maguire, Dr Declan Larkin, Dr Noreen Lineen Curtis and Dr Colum Gavin stepped
down from the committee. Dr Cormac O Dubhghaill form Cork, Dr Shastri Persad from
Galway and Dr Paul McElhineey, GP Trainee were elected to the committee, which was
otherwise returned to office unchanged.
The AGM also heard Dr Kelvin Mponda and Dr Mark Wheeler gave a brief statement relating
to the training programme for clinical assistants in dermatology in Malawi , which the PCSA
is helping to support.
The final academic element of the conference was a further round of hands-on workshops,
The delegates again chose two of the four options: Optimising excisions and simple flaps;
Punch, shave, curettage and cautery; Running stitch and mattress suturing; Cryosurgery of
warts and actinic keratosis.
Throughout the conference, the redesigned PCSA website was on display, which promises
to become a virtual meeting place for the membership in search of information, second
opinion or educational materials.
As ever, a comprehensive commercial exhibition complemented the academic programme
allowing the delegates to discover developments from the pharmaceutical and medical
device industries that can support procedural practice and community based dermatology.
In sum, it can surely be said that the PCSA’s Kilkenny ‘parliament’ was a great success and
the Association looks forward to the next year with renewed energy.
Niall Maguire Chairman PCSA