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Personal Viewpoint - Surgical care for the poor: A personal Indian perspective Tehemton E. Udwadia Abstract The appalling lack of adequate surgical care for the poor suffers on two counts: firstly our involvement and complacency with achievements in urban centres and secondly because of passive acceptance on part of poor patients and a disinclination on the part of the rural surgeons to document their experience. An effort is made to analyze some of the problems faced, progress achieved and what perhaps needs to be done. Special emphasis is placed on a medical education curriculum which embraces the needs of 70% of our population, on encouraging innovation and "research" by the surgeon who is in the thick of providing care to the poor, the implementation of human resources development and on distance learning. Surgical care for the poor is a neglected necessity all over the developing world and merits interchange and cooperation of all surgeons in all countries. Keywords Surgical care, poor patients, rural surgeon, medical education, innovations, distance learning, peer pressure, developing countries.

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