An event alongside the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, systems for surgical and anesthesia care played a vital role in countries’ responses. The workforce, highly skilled in infection prevention and control and in delivering emergency and critical care services as part of operative care, was redeployed at the frontlines of the pandemic response. Surgical wards were transformed into critical care units for patients with COVID-19. Supply chains for surgical equipment and supplies were engaged to secure personal protective equipment, oxygen, medicines, and other devices and products.
Where comprehensive surgical and anesthesia care was available and integrated with emergency and critical care, countries were able to mount an effective response to COVID-19. However, in a world where 5 billion people lack access to safe, timely, and affordable surgery and anesthesia, many more health care systems did not have the necessary flexible capacity to meet the crisis. In these cases, not only are we unprepared for the next health emergency, but the diversion of resources during the pandemic has led to an overwhelming backlog of surgical need that—without significant shifts in policy and funding—may not be recovered in this generation.
Speakers representing frontline responders, government leaders, and innovators in workforce education and training will present stories and evidence from the COVID-19 response and outline a way forward. These experts will discuss how financing surgical systems through the new Pandemic Fund—in particular preparing a skilled workforce that provides both surge personnel and continuity of essential services; strengthening surgical, anesthesia, emergency, and critical care infrastructure and supply chains; and integrating national planning and information systems—is a cost-effective way to improve global preparedness for a more resilient pandemic response.
Moderator: Dr. Gail Rosseau, Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery, George Washington University & Chair of the Board of Directors, G4 Alliance
Speakers:
- Maj Gen (rtd) Dr Obashina Ogunbiyi, Critical Care Pillar
Lead, Lagos State COVID-19 Response, Nigeria
- Prof Miliard Derbew, President, Association of Ethiopian Pediatric Surgeons
- Dr Juan Fernando Ramón, neurosurgeon and epidemiologist, Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia
- Dr Wieslawa De Pawlikowski, Director General, General Office for International Technical Cooperation, Ministry of Health, Government of Peru
- Prof Abebe Bekele, Dean of the School of Medicine, University of Global Health Equity, Kigali, Rwanda
- Dr Mickey Chopra, Global Solutions Lead for Service Delivery, Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice, World Bank Group
Hosted by the Global Alliance for Surgical, Obstetric, Trauma and Anaesthesia Care (G4 Alliance), the Frontline Health Workers Coalition, Mobile Surgery International, the Nigerian Society of Anaesthetists, Operation Smile, Physicians for Peace, Solidarity Bridge, and the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists
