The role of registered charities in the delivery of global surgery in low- and middle-income countries - a personal experience

Abstract

The world's resources are unequally divided. Investment in healthcare in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) has traditionally involved vertical public health strategies with little emphasis on the delivery of safe and effective surgery and anesthesia. The past 20 years has witnessed greater awareness of the numbers of people who have no access to surgery, the morbidity and mortality of such limited access, and the cost to the individual and society if a solution is not found. Global surgery has become a hot topic and The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) have underlined the importance of surgery in national health care plans. The harsh metrics reported by the Lancet Commission has framed the problem in more concrete terms and as of today, over 5 billion people lack access to safe surgery, over 143 million extra surgeries are needed annually to affect the imbalance and more than 15,000 children die each day in Sub Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia from preventable disease, including the lack of access to safe surgery. Horizontal integrated healthcare that includes surgical provision is the new norm, but its introduction is expensive and will need time. The ambition of universal healthcare access for all people (SDG) with a corresponding reduction in child and maternal mortality will be difficult for most governments. Altruistic, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are ideally placed to assist this goal but must introduce changes in practice to include onsite and off-site training, broad partnerships with other NGOs and academic bodies and greater advocacy with governments to ensure sustainability. NGOs should work in concert with local agencies, hospitals and governments to meet local needs.

Keywords: Change and the sustainable developmental goals; Horizontal health care; Non-governmental organizations; Surgery.