Mapping timely access to emergency and essential surgical services: The Malaysian experience

Geospatial mapping of 2-hour access to timely essential surgery in the Philippines

OBJECTIVES

Timely access to safe and affordable surgery is essential for universal health coverage. To date, there are no studies evaluating 2-hour access to Bellwether procedures (caesarean section, laparotomy, open fracture management) in the Philippines. The objectives of this study were to measure the proportion of the population able to reach a Bellwether hospital within 2 hours in the Philippines and to identify areas in the country with the most surgically underserved populations.

METHODS

All public hospitals with Bellwether capacities were identified from the Philippines Ministry of Health website. The service area tool in ArcGIS Pro was used to determine the population within a 2-hour drive time of a Bellwether facility. Finally, suitability modelling was conducted to identify potential future sites for a surgical facility that targets the most underserved regions in the Philippines.

RESULTS

428 Bellwether capable hospitals were identified. 85.1% of the population lived within 2 hours of one of these facilities. However, 6 regions had less than 80% of its population living within 2 hours of a Bellwether capable facility: Bicol, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga, Autonomous region of Muslim Mindanao, Caraga and Mimaropa. Suitability analysis identified four regions-Caraga, Mimaropa, Calabarzon and Zamboanga-as ideal locations to build a new hospital with surgical capacity to improve access rates.

CONCLUSION

85.1% of the population of the Philippines are able to reach Bellwether capable hospitals within 2 hours, with regional disparities in terms of access rates. However, other factors such as weather, traffic conditions, financial access, availability of 24-hour surgical services and access to motorised vehicles should also be taken into consideration, as they also affect actual access rates.

The current status of surgical care in the Asia-Pacific region and opportunities for improvement: proceedings

The World Health Assembly resolution 68.15 recognised emergency and essential surgery as a critical component of universal health coverage. The first session of the three-part virtual meeting series on Strategic Planning to Improve Surgical, Obstetric, Anaesthesia, and Trauma Care in the Asia-Pacific Region focused on the current status of surgical care and opportunities for improvement. During this session, Ministries of Health and World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Directors shared country- and regional-level progress in surgical system strengthening. The WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) has developed an Action Framework for Safe and Affordable Surgery, whilst the WHO South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) highlighted their efforts in emergency obstetric care, workforce strengthening, and blood safety. Numerous countries have begun developing and implementing National Surgical, Obstetric, and Anaesthesia Plans (NSOAPs). Participants agreed surgical system strengthening is an integral component of universal health coverage, pandemic preparedness, and overall health system resilience. Participants discussed common challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, workforce capacity building, and improving access for hard-to-reach populations. They generated and shared common solutions, including strengthening surgical care capacity in first-level hospitals, anaesthesia task-shifting, remote training, and integrating surgical care with public health, preventive care, and emergency preparedness. Moving forward, participants committed to developing and implementing NSOAPs and agreed on the need to raise political awareness, build a broad-based movement, and form intersectoral collaborations.

Monitoring Indicators of Universal Access to Accessible and Safe Anesthetic and Surgical Care in a Peruvian Region: An Ambispective Study

INTRODUCTION

The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery indicators for monitoring anesthetic and surgical care allow the identification of access barriers, evaluate the safety of surgeries, facilitate planning, and assess changes over time. The primary objective was to measure these indicators in all health facilities of a Peruvian region in 2020.

METHODS

This was an ambispective observational study to measure the anesthetic and surgical care indicators in Piura, a region in Peru, between January 2020 and June 2021. Public and private health facilities in the Piura region that performed surgical care or had specialists from any surgical specialty participated in the study. Data were collected from all regional health facilities that provided surgical care to estimate the density of surgical workforce. Likewise, the percentage of the population with access to an operating room within 2 h was estimated using georeferenced tools. Finally, a public database was accessed to determine the surgical volume, the percentage of the regional population protected with health insurance.

RESULTS

In 2020, 88.4% of the inhabitants of this Peruvian region had access to timely essential surgery. There were 18.4 surgical specialists and 1174 surgeries per 100,000 populations, and 91% of the population had health insurance. In addition, there was a rate of 2.1 working operating rooms per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021.

CONCLUSIONS

This Peruvian region presented an increasing trend with respect to the population's access to essential and timely surgical care, and health insurance coverage. However, the workforce distribution was inequitable among the provinces of the region, the surgical volume was reduced, and timely access was hindered because of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Prevalence of cataract and factors associated with cataract surgery uptake among older persons in Malaysia: A cross-sectional study from the National Eye Survey II

Nationally-representative evidence is limited on factors affecting uptake of cataract surgery in Malaysia. We found the prevalence of cataract among older persons to be 26.8%. The two most common barriers were ‘need not felt’ (43.5%) and ‘fear of surgery or poor result’ (16.2%). Reluctance for surgical intervention was greater outside the Central zone.