2008 - Kampala
Leaders in surgery and public health from 11 African countries, Europe and the United States came together in Kampala, July 22-24, 2008, to develop collaborative strategies to increase access to surgical services across sub-Saharan Africa. The meeting was hosted by the Department of Surgery at the University of Makerere and co-organized by Global Health Sciences at the University of California San Francisco on behalf of the Bellagio Essential Surgery Group.
The meeting drew up an urgent call for national and international action to achieve universal access to essential surgical care to address the crisis in surgical services in sub-Saharan Africa. The group recommends:
- Commissioning a careful analyses of country needs and implementing realistic options and innovations that will help to reduce surgical mortality and morbidity
- Improving the competence and motivation of doctors and other staff in peripheral hospitals and health centers
- Expanding the surgical competency base to other health care personnel in order to address the capacity issues, human resource shortages and increased access
- Encouraging educational reforms that inculcate practical surgical skills training as integral parts of basic medical training
- Investing in improvements and expansion of infrastructure and equipment in order to strengthen health care delivery overall
- Implementation of effective strategies to attract and to retain skilled health workers at district levels in order to curb the human resource crisis
See the attached report and documents below for more details.
Bellagio Conference 2008 Report
Background Papers
- The Crisis in Surgical Services in Africa
- La Crise des Services Chirurgicaux en Afrique
- Session on Strategies to strengthen the delivery of trauma care with a case study from Uganda
- Session on Strategies to increase surgical workforce
- Session on Strategies to strengthen access to surgery at the district level
- Training programme for CDS in Niger
- Model Proposal for Training Clinical Officers in Surgery The Malawi Case Study
- United Republic of Tanzania Ministry of Health - Curriculum for Assistant Medical Officer
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