The Society of Anaesthetists of Hong Kong was founded in 1954. Throughout the past half a century, the Society has put in a lot of effort in order to bring up the standard of anaesthesia in Hong Kong to gain international recognition.

The Society has been working closely with the Hong Kong College of Anaesthesiologists in organising annual scientific meetings since 1996. With these meetings, the Society has developed fruitful linkages nationally and internationally. The Society is honoured to be invited by the Australian Society of Anaesthetists each year to attend the Australian National Scientific Congress. Through these connections, we have enjoyed effective communications with colleagues overseas in knowledge, skills, experience and fraternity.

The Society has also been involved in the attendances and exchanges with our Mainland counterparts since 1994, starting with Guangzhou, and later with Shanghai and Beijing. Representatives of our Society were invited to attend national scientific meetings; and mainland hospital and university visits and exchanges were arranged. We have thus developed a very good relationship with the Chinese Society of Anesthesiology (CSA).

The Society together with the ASA has supported running the Primary Trauma Care (PTC) courses in China and Vietnam since 2002. PTC, which is adopted by the World Health Organisation (WHO), is for trauma management in district and remote locations. PTC arose initially in 1996 from the collaborative efforts of three anaesthetists. Our Society have been sponsoring the PTC courses and we have sent our Hong Kong PTC anaesthetist instructors to Xian, Kunming, Beijing and Shanghai in China and Hanoi in Vietnam.

The Society has contributed to strengthen the skillful anaesthetic assistance in Hong Kong. We have been running the Certificate Course for Anaesthetic Nursing for many years. Nearly a thousand of nurses in Hong Kong and even from Macau have been trained. Some have developed into nurse specialists in anaesthesia as well as eminent nurse leaders.

We have also offered benefits and assistance to anaesthetic trainee members. We have established conference/research grants as well as sponsorship for trainee anaesthetic courses. Sponsored educational activities like short term overseas hospital and university visits, such as the Baylor University Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, were organised for members.