Suchergebnisse

Malawi has a population of about 13 million people, 85% of whom live in rural areas. The gross national income per capita is US$620, with 42% of the people living on less than US$1 per day. The government per capita expenditure on health is US$5. Malawi has 266 doctors, of whom only nine are orthopaedic surgeons. To address the severe shortage of doctors, Malawi relies heavily on paramedical officers to provide the bulk of healthcare. Specialized orthopaedic clinical officers have been trained since 1985 and are deployed primarily in rural district hospitals to manage 80% to 90% of the orthopaedic workload in Malawi. They are trained in conservative management of most common traumatic and nontraumatic musculoskeletal conditions. Since the program began, 117 orthopaedic clinical officers have been trained, of whom 82 are in clinical practice. In 2002, Malawi began a local orthopaedic postgraduate program with an intake of one to two candidates per year. However, orthopaedic clinical officers will continue to be needed for the foreseeable future. Orthopaedic clinical officer training is a cost-effective way of providing trained healthcare workers to meet the orthopaedic needs of a country with very few doctors and even fewer orthopaedic surgeons.

Background Surgery is increasingly recognized as an important driver for health systems strengthening, especially in developing countries. To facilitate quality improvement initiatives, baseline knowledge of capacity for surgical, anaesthetic, emergency and obstetric care is critical. In partnership with the Malawi Ministry of Health, we quantified government hospitals' surgical capacity through workforce, infrastructure and health service delivery components.

Background There is a growing awareness of the importance of surgical disease within global health. We hypothesised that surgical disease in low income countries predominantly affects young adults and may therefore have a significant economic impact. Methods We retrospectively reviewed all surgical admission data from two rural government district hospitals in two different sub-Saharan African countries over a 6-month period. We analysed all surgical admissions with respect to patient demographics (age and gender), diagnosis, and procedure performed. Results Surgical admissions accounted for 12.9 and 19.8 % of all hospital admissions in Malawi and Sierra Leone respectively. 18.5 and 6.2 % of all hospital patients required a surgical procedure in Malawi and Sierra Leone respectively, with the low number in Sierra Leone accounted for in that many of the obstetric admissions were referred to a nearby Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) hospital for treatment. 17.9 and 10.5 % of surgical admissions were under the age of 16 in Malawi and Sierra Leone respectively, with 16–35 year olds accounting for 57.3 % of surgical admissions in Sierra Leone and 53.5 % in Malawi. Men accounted for 53.7 and 46.0 % of surgical admissions in Sierra Leone and Malawi respectively. An unexpected finding was the high level of patients who absconded from hospital in Sierra Leone after diagnosis but before treatment. This involved 11.8 % of all surgical patients, including 38 % with a bowel obstruction, 39 % with peritonitis and 20 % with ectopic pregnancy. Conclusions Most people affected by disease requiring surgery are young adults and this may have significant economic implications.

Background: District hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa are in need of investment if countries are going to progress towards universal health coverage, and meet the sustainable development goals and the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery time-bound targets for 2030. Previous studies have suggested that government hospitals are likely to be highly cost-effective and therefore worthy of investment. Methods: A retrospective analysis of the inpatient logbooks for two government district hospitals in two sub-Saharan African hospitals was performed. Data were extracted and DALYs were calculated based on the diagnosis and procedures undertaken. Estimated costs were obtained based on the patient receiving ideal treatment for their condition rather than actual treatment received. Results: Total cost per DALY averted was 26 (range 17–66) for Thyolo District Hospital in Malawi and 363 (range 187–881) for Bo District Hospital in Sierra Leone. Conclusion: This is the first published paper to support the hypothesis that government district hospitals are very cost-effective. The results are within the same range of the US$32.78–223 per DALY averted published for non-governmental hospitals.