3 - History of Anaesthesia Society

Most anaesthetics were still given in the old style and the demand for
specialists had km pressing. The mall 11umber of qualified
specialists was ovemr'ced and often asked to do cssea on the same day
in several llospitals and sometires in ~rnprepred surro~mdings. This
would occasionally generate Aiffic~iLt and hazardous situations, but
fortunately teaching in anaesthesiology gradually appeared in the
university prqranmes.
llle same year reform were undertaken in the mediml profession. The
developnent of spcislised medicine had created the need to define the
relative position of general practitioners and soecialists. Social
security mdicine had bcme general in the country and specialists
claimed priviLeged fees within its orpisation. .%ny doctors h3d an
undiscuted canpetence as specialists in a variety of branchzs of
medicine, but some were ju~t sslf-awinted or had obtained a certain
notoriety without havinq undergone a training progrannne or passed an
examination.
In anaesthesia, some general practitioners were still regularly giving
'old style' anaesthesia. They believed the only technique of the
spcial-ist they were unable to manage was tracheal intubation. Many
applied to be dccepted in demrtments of surgery, displacing an
anaesthetist, so that they could learn 'how to pass a tube1. The
qislified anaest:~etists had to insist that hospital authorities only
admit candidates for training for a €1111 course.
In 311 specislties, it had hem necessary to set rip a system for
granting recognised qualifications. this ms the task of a new union of
all spxialties: 'Groupnent des Unions bfsssionelles Belges de
Medicins Specialistes' (GBS). As the anaesthetists had started their
union in 1947, they were one of the founding unions of the GHS. This was
highly gratifying to our young qroup.
'[he nlnnber of anaesthetists had increased and so had the nmhr of their
whlicatims. Their ppers had t~come rather abqtruse to surgeons. In an
attempt to further incrsasz ti?~ status of our spcialty, and to make it
prfectly clear to the m~dical profession as well as to the authorities,
that clinical anaesthesia wss neither part of surqery nor of
pharnucolay, it appeared that an independent scientific journal was
necessary. 'Acta Anaesthesiologica Wlgica' was foundeft. For a small
colrntry like Bel9ium it was a daring initiative which contriktcd to the
slxzialtyf s pre.3tiye.
Pie National Health Insurance then dacided to re-examine the
nomenclature of the various medical services and their sc4e of fees.
The clment system had heen introduced in 1344 when specialised
iinaest!~esia did not exist. Py tradition, the anaesthesia fees were 10%
of the surgeon's. Cur proEessiona1 union decided to clsim 30% with the
hope of obtaining 20%. It !ms a plcasant surprise that the 30% was