President CCP 2023
“Holistic care amidst constrains”
It is with great pleasure I pen this message as the President Ceylon College of Physicians 2023. I am honored to be given this opportunity to lead an organisation with dedicated members, continuously spent their time and energy while expecting nothing in return, to continue college activities and fulfilling its long term goals to its full potential without divergence. The ultimate goal being, to serve our patients to the best of our ability, while not being content at the best, striving for new ways to make the best better. I wish to salute our membership, always working in silence, without expectation of glory or splendor. You have been battling the past months trying to provide the best possible care to our patients under the circumstances. In the absence of print papers or fuel to travel, many services would have come to a standstill. But even when many essential tools of trade were scarce, physicians in all tiers still chose to continue to work and care for their patients – they are the unsung heroes.
The concept of holistic care is that patient management needs to be addressed in many facets. Like the many petals of a lotus flower make a picturesque end product, bringing all relevant components for a holistic care together, will result in a healthy person true to the WHO definition.
Delivering that in gloomy environment like today is no easy task. But ladies and gentlemen, we have to aspire to and build a brighter future for the sake of our motherland. Hence our theme for year 2023 – “Holistic care amidst constrains”. Reverting to our simile of the lotus, the nature has provided us with the perfect example which grows in the most unlikely of places to produce a beautiful and fragrant result that brightens the gloomy surrounding it sprang from.
As a college I propose to empower our members and their teams to deliver holistic care amidst constraints through our academic programs.
The ability to lead, communicate well and manage work related stress, are going to be key attributes that will enable us to successfully overcome a crisis. I envisage incorporating these into the proposed academic programme for 2023. All components of the academic programme will have an emphasis on clinical decision making, rational use of investigations and medications to benefit our clinical team members including medical officers and postgraduate trainees.
In these troubled times, maintaining the clarity of mind and the mental wellbeing of our membership will be important. To achieve this, I believe that opportunities to have fellowship among members and activities that take our minds beyond medicine should be an essential component.
I invite all members of the CCP to join hands with my council and myself to make these endeavors truly successful. Let’s embark on this challenging year ahead together, knowing we might have to go backwards in order to move forwards, sometimes re-learn, maybe even un-learn to do our best for our patients, to the profession, and our nation, staying true to the spirit of our College.