16/10/2026
Dear Professors, Consultants, Anesthesiologists, Anesthetists, Residents, Colleagues, Health care Leaders and Administrators, Members of Our Professional Society, and Anesthesia Professionals across Africa and Around the World, On the occasion of World Anesthesia Day 2026, I extend my warmest greetings and sincere appreciation to every member of our anesthesia community.
As Head of the Department of Anesthesiology and a member of the Executive Committee of our professional society, I am proud to join colleagues at our institutions, across our country, throughout Africa, and around the world in celebrating a profession that stands at the heart of safe surgery, critical care, emergency care, resuscitation, and pain management.
This day is more than a celebration of our specialty. It is an opportunity to recognize our collective contribution, reflect on our responsibilities, and acknowledge the challenges we face, and renew our commitment to the patients and communities who depend on us.
Anaesthesia: A Continuous Commitment to the Patient
Anaesthesia is far more than administering medications or ensuring unconsciousness during surgery. It is the science of sustaining life, the discipline of anticipating danger, the art of making critical decisions, and the privilege of protecting patients when they are most vulnerable.
Our responsibility begins before anaesthesia, when we assess patients, identify risks, optimize their condition, prepare for potential complications, and build the trust that makes safe care possible.
It continues during anaesthesia, when vigilance, sound clinical judgment, technical expertise, and effective teamwork protect vital physiological functions and enable surgery to proceed as safely as possible.
And it extends after anaesthesia, through safe emergence, recovery, pain relief, recognition and management of complications, and appropriate postoperative or critical care.
The patient's journey does not end when surgery is completed, and neither does our responsibility. Whether in the operating theatre, recovery room, intensive care unit, emergency care, or pain mgโt, our commitment remains the same: to protect life, relieve suffering, and promote the best possible outcomes.
The Value of Work That Often Goes Unnoticed
Much of our greatest work may never be seen or remembered by the patient. A complication anticipated and prevented, a difficult airway managed safely, a physiological disturbance recognized early, or a patient guided through recovery without avoidable harm may appear uneventful to the outside world. Yet these moments represent the very essence of our profession.
Our success is not measured only by the procedures we perform or the emergencies we overcome. It is also measured by the harm we prevent, the suffering we relieve, the confidence we inspire, and the lives patients are able to resume after receiving our care.
We may work behind the scenes, but our responsibility is always at the center of patient safety. Our Patients Are Our Greatest Strength!
To our residents and trainees: you are the future of our specialty. Continue to learn with curiosity, practise with discipline, accept supervision with humility, and develop the judgment to recognize both your capabilities and your limitations. Every lesson you learn today can become a safeguard for a patient tomorrow.
To our consultants, senior anesthesiologists and mentors: thank you for your clinical excellence, dedication, leadership, and willingness to teach. Your influence extends beyond the patients you care for to every colleague you mentor and every future specialist you help shape.
To our colleagues, faculty members, and healthcare professionals: thank you for your commitment, teamwork, and resilience. Safe anaesthesia is a collective achievement, strengthened by respectful communication and collaboration among anaesthesia professionals, surgeons, nurses, technicians, recovery teams, critical care teams, and all those who contribute to perioperative care.
To our health care leaders, administrators, and institutional partners: your support is essential to quality training, effective clinical services, research, professional development, and a culture in which patient safety remains a shared priority.
To our professional society members and colleagues serving in different countries: our clinical environments, resources, and experiences may differ, but our professional responsibility unites us.
Through collaboration, shared learning, advocacy, and mutual support, we can strengthen our specialty beyond institutional and national boundaries.
Our Responsibility Beyond Celebration
As we celebrate our achievements, we must also acknowledge the challenges that continue to affect anesthesia services, particularly in resource constrained settings. Shortages of trained professionals, limited equipment and essential medicines, inadequate monitoring and critical care capacity, demanding workloads, and unequal access to safe care remain important concerns.
These challenges call for collective action; not resignation.
We must continue to advocate for stronger anesthesia services, invest in high quality education and outcome based training, promote research and innovation, strengthen professional development, improve working environments, and support the systems that allow our colleagues to deliver safe care.
Safe anesthesia must not be a privilege determined by geography, income, or the resources of a health facility. Every patient who needs surgery deserves access to appropriately trained professionals and safe, quality anesthesia care.
Strengthening anesthesia is not simply improving one medical specialty. It is strengthening surgical services, emergency response, maternal and newborn care, critical care, pain management, and the wider health system.
One Profession, One Shared Responsibility
World Anaesthesia Day reminds us that the future of our specialty depends on more than individual expertise. It depends on the strength of our teams, the quality of our institutions, the commitment of our educators, the development of our trainees, the support of our leaders, and the solidarity of our professional community.
Let us continue to mentor one another, learn from our experiences, speak up for patient safety, support our colleagues, advance our science, and advocate for the recognition and resources our specialty needs.
Above all, let us never lose sight of the person at the center of everything we do: the patient who entrusts us with their life, their safety, and their hope for recovery.
On this special day, I salute every anesthesiologist, anesthetist, resident, educator, researcher, and member of the wider anesthesia care team for the dedication you demonstrate every day.
Your work matters, your contribution matters, and the lives you protect matter.
May we continue to serve with competence, lead with integrity, teach with commitment, collaborate across borders, and care with compassion.
Happy World Anaesthesia Day 2026!
Before anaesthesia, we prepare. During anaesthesia, we protect. After anaesthesia, we continue to care. At every stage, the patient remains our priority.
With sincere appreciation and professional solidarity!
Dr. Lemi Bayisa, Anesthesiologist
Head, Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, St. Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College
Executive Committee Member, Ethiopian Society of Anesthesiology, Critical Care, Pain Medicine Physicians
Board Member, World Federation Society of Anesthesiology, Africa Regional Section
Telegram: t.me/HakimEthio
