Safe surgery, anaesthesia here at home
From our research in several East African hospitals from 2012, supply chains to ensure efficient surgical care were found lacking.
What you need to know:
- Safe anaesthesia guidelines were recently launched in Kenya and Tanzania.
- There is serious potential for growth in the surgical market in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In a five-hour surgery by Dr Epodoi and his team at Soroti Regional Referral Hospital, Uganda, recently, the live conjoined twin was separated from its dead sibling.
This shows that, if strengthened, all regional referral hospitals in the East African Community can provide appropriate intra-operative and post-operative care, including adequate oxygen capacity and availability of emergency medications, equipment and trained personnel.
From our research in several East African hospitals from 2012, supply chains to ensure efficient surgical care were found lacking. We presented several opportunities to improve surgical outcomes in reports that were widely disseminated and presented at local and international meetings.
Later, in 2015, the World Health Assembly recognised anaesthesia as an essential component of universal health coverage, leading to the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, which reported that five billion people lack access to safe surgery when needed.
Anaesthesia services
Safe anaesthesia guidelines were recently launched in Kenya and Tanzania. A strong anaesthesiology and critical care team and intensive care units in all referral hospitals are vital to reduce delays in referring cases and to ensure the great work by surgeons is not lost by a death on the operating table during a complex surgery or in the immediate post-operative period.
Now is the time to set specific goals with timelines to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), so that all can have an equal chance to life through UHC.
There is serious potential for growth in the surgical market in Sub-Saharan Africa. Stronger surgical and anaesthesia services would not only reduce morbidity and mortality, or improve maternal and neonatal outcomes in the region, but also the appropriate systems can be utilised for other medical emergencies and management of, for example, a pandemic like the Covid-19.
Dr Epiu, a medical doctor and anaesthesiology specialist, is a PhD finalist in Australia. [email protected].
