INTRODUCTION We sought to assess awareness of, exposure to and interest in general practitioner (GP) surgery and enhanced surgical skills (ESS) among family practice residents in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. METHODS We distributed a survey to all family practice residents at 4 universities in BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan. The survey assessed demographic information, awareness o...

BACKGROUND Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness in China, and poverty is a major barrier to having cataract surgery. In 2003, the Chinese government began a series of new national health insurance reforms, including the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) and the Urban Resident Basic Health Insurance scheme (URBMI). These two programs, combined with the previously existing Urban Emplo...

OBJECTIVE To document surgical procedures performed in British Columbia between 1996 and 2001 at rural hospital sites with no resident specialist surgeons and to define the scope of practice of general practitioner (GP)-surgeons at these small-volume surgical sites. METHODS We obtained data from published information available in the medical directories for British Columbia and from the Popul...

BACKGROUND Most sub-Saharan African countries struggle to make safe surgery accessible to rural populations due to a shortage of qualified surgeons and the unlikelihood of retaining them in district hospitals. In 2002, Zambia introduced a new cadre of non-physician clinicians (NPCs), medical licentiates (MLs), trained initially to the level of a higher diploma and from 2013 up to a BSc degree. ...

AIM To describe the prevalence of and risk factors for pterygium in a population based sample of residents of the Australian state of Victoria who were aged 40 years and older. METHODS The strata comprised nine randomly selected clusters from the Melbourne statistical division, 14 nursing homes randomly selected from the nursing homes within a 5 kilometre radius of the nine Melbourne clusters...

BACKGROUND Evidence of widespread distribution of trachoma in Egypt had not been clarified as previous surveys were limited to individual communities which may not have been representative of the general population. The Nile Delta of Egypt presents a unique environment for trachoma to persist. Economic improvements in the past decade have affected even the poorest rural environments; availabili...

Cataract extraction the most common intraocular surgery performed in children. Advances in surgery instrumentation and technique have led to a reduction in complication rates, making cataract surgery a more accessible outpatient procedure [1,2]. These changes have led cataract surgery to be available to children under more challenging conditions, such as those found in rural regions or developi...

The incidence of post-operative wound infections in Belize in 1986 and 1987 was studied. Both military practice in the military hospital and civilian practice in the rural hospitals of the local towns were included. Despite previous misgivings and sub-optimal conditions in the rural hospitals an acceptably low incidence was found in both areas of work.

People living in rural and remote communities often have among the greatest health needs but the most limited access to healthcare services, including specialist care. One solution for increasing access to specialist services is visiting-specialist services or specialist outreach clinics - that is, planned, regular visits by specialist physicians from their usual practice location to see patien...

This article summarizes the perspectives gained in the course of evaluating a 4-year demonstration program that supported rural hospital networks as mechanisms for improving rural health care delivery. Findings include: (1) joining a network is a popular, low-cost strategic response for rural hospitals in an uncertain environment; (2) rural hospital network survival is enhanced by the mutual re...