Context:

  • According to recent reports, there is neglect of global surgey across the South Asia which has the largest population .

What is meant by global surgery?

  • Global surgery refers to the study and practice of improving access to timely, quality, and affordable surgical care.
  • It focuses on the horizontal health systems strengthening through addressing a range of health challenges in surgical care that improve health outcomes, particularly in vulnerable populations.
  • Global surgery mostly contributes to achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDGs) by addressing the elimination of poverty (SDG 1), ensuring good health and well-being (SDG 3), promoting decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), and reducing inequalities (SDGs 5 and 10).
  • Global surgery issues are present across the national boundaries and intersect with other global health issues such as migration and the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Global surgery emphasizes on equitable access to emergency and essential surgery.
  • Even though it predominantly focuses on low­ and middle­income countries (LMICs), it also emphasizes on access disparities and under­served populations in high­income countries (HICs).
  • These essential surgeries include essential and emergency surgeries such as surgery, obstetrics, trauma, and anaesthesia (SOTA).
  • Even after the presence of small differences, there is largely a consensus across multiple international groups on about thirty procedures that fall under the umbrella of emergency and essential surgery.

Why it’s a big problem?

  • The veracity of problems of global surgery is substantial, encompassing a range of challenges including inaccessibility, disease burden, and economic burden.
  • It is noted that five billion people or over 70% of the global population lack timely access to safe and affordable surgical care when needed.
  • It is important to note that nearly 99% and 96% of the people in low­ and lower­middle­income countries (LLMICs) respectively are facing access gaps compared to 24% in high­income countries (HICs).
  • Of the five billion people about 1.6 billion people lacking access live in South Asia.
  • This translates to over 98% of the South Asian population who are lacking access to safe and affordable SOTA care.