Title: The Global Need for Surgery and Anesthesia Care<br/>Author: Jon Mark Hirshon<br/><a href='http://umem.org/profiles/faculty/96/'>[Click to email author]</a><hr/><p>
A Lancet Commission on Global Surgery has just published a 56 page article about the need to improve access to surgery and anesthesia care. Its five key messages are:</p>
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5 billion people lack access to safe, affordable surgical and anaesthesia care when needed</li>
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143 million additional surgical procedures are needed each year to save lives and prevent disability</li>
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33 million individuals face catastrophic health expenditure due to payment for surgery and anaesthesia each year</li>
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Investment in surgical and anaesthesia services is affordable, saves lives, and promotes economic growth</li>
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Surgery is an indivisible, indispensable part of health care</li>
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The need for high quality acute care, both for urgencies and emergencies, is clearly an important component of providing “universal access to safe, affordable surgical and anaesthesia care”- the vision of the Commission.</p>
<fieldset><legend>References</legend>
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Global Surgery 2030: evidence and solutions for achieving health, welfare, and economic development: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60160-X">http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60160-X</a></p>
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Global surgery—going beyond the Lancet Commission: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60465-2</p>
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