Dr. Ntirenganya, president, Rwanda Surgical Society, explained to the media some of the gaps in surgical care that need to be addressed.
Rwanda is set to host a mega conference that will bring together more than 300 surgeons from across the continent and the world to discuss ways of address the critical challenges the continent still faces in providing lifesaving surgeries.
The African continent faces a major shortage of surgical professionals, while many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa lack means to provide efficient surgical care to citizens and visitors, due to lack of equipment, technology and know-how.
The cost of providing surgery also remains very high in most countries, yet the continent continues to grapple with a huge burden of diseases, especially Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and other conditions that crucially require surgery.
By 2030, the African continent is projected to lack over 6 million surgical care providers, with most countries on the continent averaging about 0.5 surgeons and 0.1 anaesthetists per 100,000 people, a major shortage which has created a major health care burden.
In a bid to address this urgent challenge, the Pan-African Surgical Conference, which will commence on February 24 and end on February 28, will bring together more than 500 delegates, who include surgeons, healthcare professionals and policymakers, to develop strategies to strengthen Africa’s surgical workforce and improve access to surgical care.
It is co-organised by the Ministry of Health, Operation Smile, Rwanda Surgical Society and the University of Rwanda (UR), with the aim of advancing surgical care on the African continent.
According to Prof. Faustin Ntirenganya, President, Rwanda Surgical Society and Director of Global Surgery Research Hub at the University of Rwanda (UR), the conference will lay the foundation of what the African continent must do to reinforce the surgery profession and improve access.
Prof. Ntirenganya, who was speaking to members of the media fraternity, during a media session on the upcoming conference, said that today Rwandans and Africans should not be travelling abroad to seek surgery, which can be conducted in their respective countries, but before that happens, countries need to invest and train.
He pointed out that globally, at least 2 billion people of the entire global population will need surgery at one point, which goes to show why surgical care is one of the vital areas of healthcare to invest in.
Journalists had an opportunity to ask questions.
Referencing the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, Prof. Ntirenganya said that most African countries lag behind on key indicators on surgical care which were introduced in 2015 to encourage countries to improve surgical care.
He said this is mainly so because some countries have not prioritised investing in surgical care as an aspect of healthcare because they feel it is costly or a luxury of sorts, yet surgery is a key component of care.
“The conference will be key in terms of helping us to address these surgical gaps,” he said, adding that most people relate surgical care to just disease but it goes beyond that, including people who get accidents and other events in life that can lead to a surgery.
Among the key indicators where countries lag behind include geographical accessibility, which refers to the distance they have to cover to reach where they can receive surgical care, which should be at least below 2 hours.
On this aspect, Dr. Ntirenganya said Rwanda has made good progress, putting in place health centres and district hospitals as well as good roads that lead to those facilities, but challenges remain on other indicators.
“In regard to the surgical workforce, indicator, the agreed standard is 20 surgical specialists to 100, 000 people but currently in Rwanda we are at 3/100,000 but that is quite an improved,”
“When we launched this initiative, we were at 1.7 /100, 000, which means we have almost doubled this number, which is quite an improvement,” Prof. Ntirenganya said, adding that Rwanda is among the few countries which have shown the commitment to make a difference.
He explained that the reason the indicators are measured based on 100,000 people is because at least 5,000 people out of that number will require surgery at some point in life.
The conference, themed “The Future of Surgical Care in Africa: A Surgeon in Every District Hospital”, will also be an opportunity for surgical providers to network and share ideas and best practices, with each country bringing something to the table.
Collaborative efforts pay off
Andrew Karima, the Country Manager for Operation Smile in Rwanda, who are the co-organisers, said the conference will be an opportunity to yet again reiterate the importance of surgery as a lifesaving skill and what needs to be done to avail it to all those in need of it.
The charity Operation Smile has been at the forefront of provision of surgical care services especially to the vulnerable, through different initiatives, including offering free cleft lip and palate surgeries for children in Rwanda and other low- to middle-income countries across the globe.
Karima, who has worked for the organisation for the past 10 years, has seen the non-profit charity turnaround the lives of children and women across Rwanda, through simple surgeries conducted by visiting doctors, going to show just how important surgical care is for humans.
Andrew Karima Country Manager for Operation Smile in Rwanda, highlighted some of the initiatives they’ve undertaken, to improve surgical care in Rwanda
Through collaborative efforts with the Ministry of Health, Operation Smile works with doctors from across the world who travel to different countries to perform free surgeries on people who otherwise couldn’t afford them and it works like magic. By a snap of the surgical blade, lives are transformed.
The organisation has delivered life-changing surgeries to more than 2,000 patients in Rwanda since it opened in 2009. Up until 2013, Rwanda had only one plastic surgeon.
The demand for services was high and as a result, Operation Smile started initiatives to train and improve the capacity of Rwandan doctors who showed the will to learn and perform life changing surgeries.
“Beyond providing surgeries, we are now relying on the expertise and knowledge of doctors who come, to train and improve the capacity of Rwandan doctors, which moved us from giving a man fish to rather teach the man how to fish,”
“Our programmes are now mainly centred around education. Today we don’t only focus around providing surgical education skills to aspiring plastic surgeons but also looking at all those connecting factors that contribute to a successful procedure,” Karima explained.
He said that among other things, they deploy a holistic approach to providing surgical care, which includes developing nursing teams, anaesthetists and all the people needed in a theatre to conduct a successful surgery. The organisation has helped to train more than 20 general surgeons.
Operation Smile is currently supporting government efforts to bring surgical care closer to the communities, especially in rural areas, including setting up and refurbishing theatres in different hospital in the country, to make them more equipped to provide surgical care.
“We don’t only focus on providing skills but also improving theatres and bringing on board several actors that are working in a cognitive environment because, a patient starts feeling hope for a successful procedure just before the procedure itself,”
“This involves making theatres a better and conducive place for surgical care, and also making sure that we’re using what is up to standard in terms of providing that care,” Karima said, in reference to the organisation’s work to renovate surgical units and learning spaces in different district hospitals.
Karima said that Operation Smile has been endeavouring to provide every possible resource to support the efforts of the government to turn Rwanda into a centre of excellence in providing surgical care.
He pointed out that the conference will be an opportunity for African surgeons to network and discuss ways of improving surgical care on the continent and also help to advance the surgical equity agenda.
