Bridging the Gap Between Surgery and Gastroenterology: Is There a Role for the Medical Officer Endoscopist?

Abstract

Gastrointestinal endoscopyis isperformedperformedat fewat instifew-institutionsSubin-SaharanSub-SaharanAfricaAfrica,.Howeverespeciallythenumberinlowof-specialistsincomecountrieswhocan.Howeverperform thesenumberproceduresofspecialistsonthe increase,whocan performandinKenya,these proceduresendoscopic isservicesonthe areincrease,avail-ablend in Kenya,thecitiendoscopicandsomeservicesmajortownsareavailable.Medicalinofficthe-erscitiesareandan someintegralmajorparttownsofthe. MKedicalnyan officershealthdeliveryarean systemintegralandpartareofdeployedtheKenyantoevenhealththe remotestdelivery partssystemof theand countryaredeployed.Here weto presentevtheretrospectivelyremotestpartsrecordedofthe detailscountryof. Here1919 weprocedurespresent doneretrospectivelybyamedicalrecofficerrded details of 1919 procedures done by a medical officer resident endoscopy fellow over a two-year period. These included 1792 upper endoscopy procedures and 127 lower endoscopy procedures with low morbidity and mortality. Based on this experience, we suggest the possibility of teaching medical officers to perform diagnostic endoscopy under supervision. We believe that basic diagnostic endoscopy can be safely and reliably performed by a medical officer.

Keywords

• flexible endoscopy
• medical officer
• diagnostic endoscopy