Surgery and sedation is not safe in Africa

Abstract

The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery (LCoGS) has established universal definitions for safe surgery. These include definitions for timely access to essential surgery, the number of specialist providers, an adequate surgical volume, tracking of perioperative mortality, and protection against impoverishing expenditure.¹ The LCoGS data highlights that in Africa we do not have enough specialist surgical and anaesthesia providers nor do we provide an adequate surgical volume to meet the surgical needs of our population.¹ The result is that surgery and sedation are not safe in Africa.