Cayhill- As of May 15, 2014 Dr. Hing Gwan Kho is employed as an anesthesiologist to strengthen the medical care provided to patients.
Anesthesiology care includes preoperative evaluations, operative support and post-operative management of patients.
In 1974, Dr. Kho worked as a family practitioner in the Netherlands until he returned to further his medical studies at the Nijmegen University in 1979. When he completed his studies, specializing in anesthesiology, he began working at the Nijmegen Teaching Hospital where he worked for 30 years until he retired in 2013.
In December 2013, he was recruited for the continuity of anesthesiology care at the St. Maarten Medical Center for a period of one week. “I met a lot of the people…who liked me too, and asked me if I would like to come back”. After learning that the hospital was looking for an anesthesiologist for an indefinite period, Dr. Kho became more interested in a job opportunity at the SMMC.
Dr. Kho has worked in all fields of anesthesiology; including neurosurgical, open heart surgery and for the last five years he worked mostly with pediatric surgery. In 1991, Dr. Kho defended his thesis on “The Use of Acupuncture in the Operating Theater”. Dr. Kho pointed out that in the early 1990s there were just a few practitioners who used acupuncture and now this has grown from a handful to a thousand. Scientific study is very rare though, because it is difficult and expensive, but “if you really want to push forward in providing medicine, you have to do three things, number one is patient care, then education and scientific studies.”
Dr. Kho will work along with Anesthesiologist Dr. Yelena George to maintain a Pain Clinic, consulting with non-admitted patients who need to manage pain in a safe way.
For appointments at the pain clinic, please contact Outpatient department at 543-111 ext 1300 or 1310.
The SMMC is glad that with the employment of a second anesthesiologist, continuity of care is retained with the recommended number of anesthesiologists to meet the needs of our patients.