Feb 23 2012: Krishna: it's a compelling question given the traditional focus of global health policy on infectious disease. I would argue that access to safe perioperative care is an extension of primary care, especially when looking at emergency surgery. In this space most attention has been directed to maternal mortality, a significant portion of which comes from lack of intervention for post-partum hemmorhage. Other high mortality events such as trauma from accidents and violence could be addressed in part by expanding basic surgical capacity to district and regional hospitals. Establishing surgical capability is expensive, as you point out, but should have a role in public health policy.
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A reply on Conversation: How do we make safe surgery part of the global health agenda?