Difficulties in Non-Operating Room Anesthesia – An Indian Perspective

India, although still classified as a developing country, has achieved tremendous growth and progress in the health care sector. It is a hotbed of medical tourism and currently has all the advanced cutting-edge technology at par with the western world in almost all disciplines of medicine. There is, however, a significant variation in the standard of care available in different parts of the country. In urban areas, the facilities available are at par with many developed countries, while in many rural areas, intuition, clinical judgement and innovation are still the best assets for the anesthesiologist. One of the authors of this article used phenylephrine eye drops from a local pharmacy and diluted them to provide necessary pressor support in a makeshift ICU in an area of need. A disparity also exists in the availability of clinical personnel. There are only 1.27 anesthesiologists per 100,000 population with an uneven distribution of...