Surgery – it’s something many first world countries, and those with immediate access to imperative healthcare may struggle to conceptualise as a ‘miracle opportunity’ for many people in the world, and far riskier, depending on where in the world you are.
In incredible news for the African continent, where more than 600 000 people die after surgery each year (twice the global average) as the University of Cape Town (UCT) expresses. UCT along with Queen Mary University of London’s team of researchers have secured roughly R52 million, or £3 million in funding.
The funds are set to secure “a new research programme that will establish centres of research excellence in four African countries with the aim of saving the lives of patients who undergo life-saving surgery,” as UCT announces.
This step to bettering life for others joins other huge achievements in surgery stemming from the Western Cape, after The Western Cape’s Department of Health, along with other roleplayers launched Robotics Surgeries (Da Vinci Xi Robot) at Groote Schuur Hospital late last year – the first of its kind in Africa.
In light of the new surgery-research funding, UCT further says that complications with surgery in Africa include survival complexes, lowered life expectancy, a poorer equality of life and financial hardship in coping with ongoing complications, a figure that’s higher than the global average.
Bruce Biccard, Professor and Second Chair in the Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital and UCT says “We hope that through this vital grant we will save many lives across Africa while improving people’s long-term health and reducing their financial strain after life-saving surgery. It’s clear that patients in Africa need better pre-, intraand post-surgical care than they currently receive.
“Through our research and working closely with local health systems and those on the ground, we want to introduce safer and more effective practices, bring about the necessary policy changes, train future African researchers, and build on our existing work on the continent to save up to 300,000 lives each year,” Biccard adds.
This work is set on creating centres of ‘research excellence’ to be located in Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, and of course, South Africa. Comprehensive research programmes will be created whereby improvements to aid and improve the safety and effectiveness of pre-, intra- and post-surgical care across Africa, UCT adds.
The centres of ‘excellence’ are set to focus on a grassroots approach to surgery at these centres in Africa, “tailored to the needs of the various health systems,” as Professor Rupert Pearse explains.
A ‘blueprint model’ approach, or top-down approach toward many kinds of socio or economic situations or development planning projects, whereby one system attempts to mimic that of another with circumstances vastly different to region, often becomes a problem when trying to manage situations that are often specific, writes Cape {town} Etc’s Ashleigh Nefdt, and is an approach questioned in African Regional Studies academically.
Thus, seeing a research approach in such an essential field done from the ground up can be commended as not only excellent but essential.
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