World Health Organization Global Initiative for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care: 2011 and Beyond (2012)

The world's burden of surgical diseases is large and increasing. Unfortunately, <5 % of all surgical procedures are performed in countries ranked within the lowest one-third in terms of per-capita health expenditures [1]. The unmet need for surgical care results in unacceptable morbidity/mortality rates associated with a host of conditions (trauma, pregnancy-related complications, other emergencies). This is especially true for rural and marginalized populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Recognizing that variations in the spectrum of surgical diseases are observed among and within countries, “essential” surgery and anesthesia may be viewed as a core group of services that can be delivered within the context of universal access. These high-priority interventions are those for which: (1) there is a large public health burden; (2) the treatment is highly successful; (3) the treatment is cost-effective [2].

To date, essential surgery and anesthesia have received minimal financial and political support as public health strategies because of the perception that the services are costly, are resource-intensive, require highly specialized training, and benefit only a fraction of the population relative to competing health interests. Evidence is amassing to refute these claims.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Initiative for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care (GIEESC) was launched in 2005. It is a global forum whose goal is to promote collaboration among a diverse group of stake-holders (individuals, institutions, societies, universities, ministries of health, other nongovernmental organizations) to strengthen the delivery of surgical services at the primary referral level in LMICs (http://www.who.int.surgery) [3–6]. The inaugural meeting was at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland in November 2005 [7], and subsequent biennial meetings were hosted by ministries of health in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in September 2007) [8] and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in June 2009) [9]. There are currently more than 624 GIEESC members from 93 countries representing all six WHO regions. In all, 45 % of members are from LMICs. The LMICs with ≥10 GIEESC members are India, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Uganda.

The WHO GIEESC members have contributed to a number of activities aimed at strengthening the delivery of essential surgical services in LMICs. One component involved the implementation, local adaptation, and translation of training tools that were developed by the WHO's Emergency and Essential Surgical Care (EESC) project, which was initiated in the Clinical Procedures Unit of the Department of Essential Health Technologies in 2004 [3–6]. These training tools include the WHO Integrated Management of Emergency and Essential Surgical Care (IMSCStoolkit [10] and the Manual of Surgical Care at the District Hospital [11]. These materials have been introduced in 39 countries through collaborations with the respective Ministry of Health (MoH) and WHO country offices. The materials have been translated into Mongolian, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Dari, and Farsi.

A WHO situational analysis tool to assess the availability of EESC at the level of individual health facilities was developed in 2007. It was based on infrastructure, human resources, procedures, equipment, and supplies [12]. This questionnaire has now been utilized in more than 35 countries, and the data collected and entered in the WHO EESC Global Database has been published to highlight gross deficiencies in the availability of EESC [13–22]. The WHO EESC Global Database was created to facilitate data entry from different countries. The situational analysis tool has been integrated into the WHO's Service Availability Mapping (SAM) technology [23] with the goal of facilitating monitoring the availability of surgical services at the facilities level. This technology was introduced in Mongolia in 2009. Plans have been made to continue with a surgical module in the WHO's recent adaptation of facilities-based monitoring, Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA). A planning tool was developed to assist policymakers integrate EESC into their national health plans.An online Global MedNet serves as a platform for online discussions and for posting announcements and materials related to GIEESC (http://www.who.int/ surgery/globalinitiative/en/).