Newsletter No. 177

2 No. 177 19th January 2001 CUHK Newsletter A We l l - Pa c k ed and Fruitful Five Years for Founder of the A & E Medicine Academic Unit W hen the University made the decision in 1995 to establish the Accident and Emergency Medicine Academic Unit, the first of its kind in Asia and Australasia, Prof. Robert Cocks was recruited to head its development. The unit celebrated its fifth birthday on 2nd October 2 0 0 0 ,and the Newsletter spoke to Prof. Cocks on the eve of his departure after the unit had been put on the right track Prof. Cocks will take up a new post in the UK with the National Health Service Executive. One of the constant reminders of Prof. Cocks' time in Hong Kong w i l l definitely be his l imi t ed edition Br e i t l i ng Emergency watch, which depicts on its face a Wessex helicopter of the Royal Air Force Squadron that was based in the territory prior to 1997. He bought it when the Royal Air Force left Hong Kong. The watch has a three- foot long aerial with a search and rescue beacon which can send a distress signal up to 20 kilometres away. Anyone equipped with the watch can identify their location to air rescue services — a feature which Prof. Cocks hopes that he will never need to use. Asia's First A&E Academic Un it Prior to 1995, accident and emergency medicine had not been treated as a priority in local hospitals. There was no structured teaching on the specialty at the medical schools, and practically no research output to speak of. As Prof. Cocks pointed out, A & E is a 'very busy specialty without much political power'. The impetus to set up the Accident and Emergency Medicine Academic Unit came from Prof. Arthur K. C. Li, then dean of the Faculty of Medicine, who felt there ought to be more teaching and research in this important branch of medicine. Teach i ng a nd T r a i n i ng With the conscientious efforts of Prof. Cocks, the undergraduate A & E medicine teaching programme is now f i rmly established at the Prince of Wales Hospital and has been in operation for four academic years. Students are systematically taught how to manage c r i t i cal c l i n i cal emergencies and to make appropriate and t ime ly medical decisions for patients sent to the A & E department. In 1998, the programme was even singled out for praise within the faculty's areas of strength in the review report of the Education and Accreditation Committee of the Hong Kong Medical Council. The unit has also been engaged in a wide variety of postgraduate teaching and training. It has held workshops for A & E doctors and nurses across the territory, as well as practice tips workshops, workshops on the management of major accidents and disasters, and workshops on the medical management of chemical accidents. Pioneer of A & E Research in HK But of all his job-related achievements over the last five years, Prof. Cocks is most proud of his unit's contribution to A & E research in the territory. 'One of the most satisfying things about my time in Hong Kong is how much research has developed in other hospitals not attached to the University. The course in research methods run by our unit attracted people from just about every local hospital with an A & E department. And now there's far more research in emergency medicine coming out of Hong Kong than in previous years,' he said. At the international A & E conference in Sydney in 1996, there was only one paper from Hong Kong 一 from the unit. By the time the next conference came up in Vancouver in 1998, there were 18 papers from Hong Kong. And at the following conference held in Boston in early 2000, there were well over 30. Clearly the unit has managed with great success to nurture a research culture in the specialty, which has in turn led to the general improvement in emergency care in Hong Kong. Personal I n t e r est i n A & E Prof. Cocks gained an interest in accident and emergency medicine as a student of the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in the UK. During his final year, he spent some elective study time in Sabah, North Borneo, working for the local Flying Doctor Service and studying trauma services. The topic of his MD thesis was related to how the human immune system reacts to trauma, a subject-area in which he has had a long-standing interest. 'Quite often we f i nd the patient develops complications after severe injury. I was very interested to know why it should be, particularly following an earlier observation I made that there are lots of white blood cells ill the blood circulation after injury, which should make it easier rather than more difficult to fight injury,' he said. In 1990, he became the first consultant and senior lecturer in accident and emergency medicine at the Hammersmith Hospital in London. Services to the Commun i t y Prof. Cocks and his unit have also been extremely active in rendering services to the community. In August 2000, he helped found the new Government Flying Service (GFS) Auxiliary Medical Section, a team of 24 doctors who answer rescue and casualty evacuation calls at weekends and public holidays. The section provides crucial medical care to patients who need to be transferred from the outlying islands to hospitals in the urban parts of Hong Kong. They also help in the search and rescue of injured hikers and hikers suffering from heat stroke. The training doctors receive on the GFS scheme is very different to their everyday practice. 'When the doctors have no missions to do, we winch them down from helicopters to the boats in the harbour and off the outlying islands 一 both onto police launches and occasionally fishing boats, to get them used to the environment they will be working in. It's very different from working in ahospital where they have several nurses to help and the equipment ready. They actually have to do everything single-handed,' Prof. Cocks pointed out. Many branches of the police actually have the responsibility to protect VIPs, including the VIP Protection Unit, the Special Duties Unit, and the Police Tactical Unit, who often need to provide medical care in conditions too dangerous for doctors and ambulancemen. In 2000, the A & E Medicine Academic Unit set up a special Police Tactical Medical Course for the Police Paramedics to train them to provide a high level of medical care in hazardous circumstances. Prof. Cocks himself also helped with the independent examination of victims of physical torture as requested by the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees. He said, 'People claiming that they had been tortured in their home countries w i l l sometimes ask for political asylum in Hong Kong. I would occasionally examine such people, and I have to say that quite often their claims proved to be absolutely true .' Five Years We l l - spent Looking back on his five years in Hong Kong, Prof. Cocks described them as nothing short of marvellous. 'All of the staff at CUHK and in the hospital have been great friends to me. They've been extremely helpful in setting up the unit, often going way beyond just doing us favours. I shall be very sorry to leave but my family are back in the UK, and I've completed the project of setting up the unit. I think it's healthy that I should give it to somebody else to continue,' he concluded. Piera Chen 中大通訊 CUHK NEWSLETTER 網 址 w e b s i t e http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/puo/ 1. 本刊逢四日及十九日出版。 2. 來函或投稿請寄沙田香港中文大學秘書處出版事務處《中大通訊》 編 輯 部 （ 電 話 2 6 0 9 8 5 8 4， 圖文傳真 2 6 0 3 6 8 6 4 ，電郵 p u b 2@u a b. msmail.cuhk.edu.hk)。 3. 投稿者須附真實姓名、地址及聯絡電話，文章則可用筆名發表。 4. 編輯有權刪改及決定是否刊登來稿，不欲稿件被刪者請預先聲明。 5. 本刊所載文章只反映作者之觀點和意見，並不代表校方或本刊立場。 6. 所有內容未經編者書面准許，不得轉載。 7. 本刊每期發行三千八百份，免費供校內教職員索閱，部分郵寄本地教 育機構及與大學有關人士。私人索閱，請致函本刊查詢。 1. The Newsletter is published on the 4th and 19th of each month. 2. A l l contributions and suggestions should be sent to the Editor, CUHK Newsletter, Publication Office, University Secretariat, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (tel. 2609 8584; fax. 2603 6864; e-mail pub2@uab.msnmail.cuhk.edu.hk). 3. Contributions should bear the writer's name and contact telephone number, and may be published under pseudonyms. No anonymous letters will be published. 4. The Editor reserves the right to reject contributions and to edit all articles without notice for reasons of clarity, length or grammar. Those who do not want to have their articles amended should indicate clearly in writing. 5. The views expressed in the CUHK Newsletter are those of the authors, and are not necessarily those of the University or the Editor. 6. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced without the written consent of the Editor. 7. This publication has a circulation of 3,800 and is primarily intended for staff members of CUH K. Copies are also sent to local educational institutions and individuals associated with the University. Those who wish to be included on the mailing list please contact the Newsletter direct. 截稿日期 Deadlines for Contributions 期數 Issue no. 出版日期 Issue dale 截稿日期 Deadline for contributions 178 19.2.2001 5.2.2001 179 4.3.2001 19.2.2001 180 19.3.2001 5.3.2001 181 4.4.2001 20.3.2001 182 19.4.2001 30.3.2001 183 4.5.2001 18.4.2001 184 19.5.2001 4.5.2001 185 4.6.2001 21.5.2001 186 19.6.2001 4.6.2001 香港中文大學出版事務處出版 編輯：梁其汝 助理編輯：蔡世彬 李琪 陳偉珠 製作：梅潔媚 Published by the Publication Office, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Editor: Amy K.Y. Leung Assistant Editors: Piera Chen, Lawrence Choi Graphic Designer: May Mui 印刷：鮑思高印刷有限公司 Printing: Don Bosco Printing Co. Ltd.