Experts from the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery (GSU) propose three priority areas for surgery in publication for The Lancet

The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, originally published in 2015 focused on lessening the healthcare based disparities faced by populations around the globe through the provision of high-quality surgical and anaesthesia care with financial protection when needed. The publication’s purpose was to achieve this vision through highlighting the importance of embedding of surgery within the global health agenda, galvanising political change, and defining scalable solutions for provision of quality surgical and anaesthesia care for all.

The publication in The Lancet from the GSU Collaborative have identified three key areas that have the most potential to reduce major causes of death and improve surgical access of care to all:

  1. Access, equity, and public health must be recognised as crucial issues for surgery – surgery has a key role in addressing global health challenges such as trauma, congenital anomalies, safe childbirth, and non-communicable diseases
  2. Inclusion and diversity must improve in both surgical research and the profession – advancing inclusion and diversity will ensure a research agenda that delivers a pragmatic and appropriate research reflecting the needs of all
  3. Climate change is the greatest global health threat facing the world – moving towards net-zero operating practices would reduce carbon emissions and enable surgeons/ policy makers to reassess the role of surgery within healthcare

The publication argues that despite the problems of large waiting lists and economic squeezes on health systems, focusing on these three key areas will ensure that surgical care can become a fundamental element of universal healthcare provision for all that will ultimately deliver major improvements in population health across the globe.

You can read more on the recently published article Surgical research – comic opera no more by clicking here.

You can also read further information on the publication in the University of Birmingham press release by clicking here.