"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds" so it has been said. Though this should not be a deterrent to any progress.

We have progressed to yet another issue of the Journal. Knowing more about the work of our colleagues, the difficulties faced in the initial years and the obstacles overcome by sheer determination. In the Letters to Editor section, Dr. U. Mehta, has tried to make us aware of what can be achieved with hard work.

Dr. Gupta’s work is commendable, aspiring and succeeding to bring about a change in his chosen speciality.

Dr. Coda’s description of maintaining constant pressure on the progress of day surgery and ultimate acceptance by the healthcare policy makers, making it mandatory, reminds us of our own situation.

Singapore being a small nation, is technically advanced in all aspect, thus so in Surgery. Therefore, it does not come as a surprise of the progress made by them in Day-case surgery. Dr. Lomanto and his team, have reached a comfort level evident from the title of the article itself!

Day-case or Ambulatory surgery, though have been around since many years, not all the countries have adapted to this concept in one go. They have carefully evolved over the years and reached a stage of being able to state, matter of factly, that they have reached an advanced stage, so to speak, in performing more and more surgeries routinely as Day-case. Dr. A. Kishore, has briefly delineated the history of Day-case surgery, which took shape out of necessity during the evolution of modern-day surgery.

We have made a modest begining, the dynamics of healthcare in India is unique. Comparable to none in the world. We have tremendous talent, potential, knack of varied application and a desire to keep up with the emerging trends from all over the world. We are in the process of evolution, recognising the need for Day-care surgery is the first step, the rest will follow.

In this era of super-speciality, Day-surgery has to find its place, create a niche, bridging the gap of smaller cases that do not require to block valuable bed space or theatre time, yet require some peroid of post-procedure observation and a fully equipped set-up.

As is evident from articles published in this issue and earlier, that most of the countries have realised that the bed-patient ratio can be brought down to reasonable levels by Ambulatory surgery. With initial backing of government agencies, the policy makers, medical fraternity, insurance providers and patients, a target can be fixed and achieved.

All in all, some progress has been made in the direction of creating awareness on Day surgery, a multi-pronged approach involving the state health machinery, the insurance providers, including TPAs, interaction with different speciality Associations and municipal health authorities have been initiated, making them aware of the need to look into Day surgery in a new light.

Most importantly, your feed back and suggestions will help in making rapid progress. Happy reading!