Governing access to emergency care in Africa

Taylor W Burkholder; Harveen B Bergquist; Lee A Wallis

doi:10.1016/j.afjem.2020.07.003

Governing access to emergency care in Africa

Afr J Emerg Med. 2020;10(Suppl 1):S2-S6. doi: 10.1016/j.afjem.2020.07.003. Epub 2020 Aug 13.

Authors

Taylor W Burkholder¹, Harveen B Bergquist^{1

2}, Lee A Wallis²

Affiliations

¹ Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
² Division of Emergency Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.

Abstract

Emergency care not only has the potential to address a large portion of death and disability in low- and middle-income countries, it is also essential to achieving the current Universal Health Coverage agenda and fulfilling the universal human right to the highest attainable standard of health. One of six health system building blocks, governance is often neglected but nonetheless essential for guaranteeing access and strengthening emergency care systems in Africa. In this paper, we highlight key components of governance that are necessary to guaranteeing access to emergency care, describe current examples of emergency care accessibility laws and regulation in various African countries, and suggest priorities for measuring and evaluating the impact of legal guarantees for access to emergency care in Africa.

Keywords: Emergency care; Governance; Health systems; Legislation; Regulation.

Publication types

Review