Key aspects of health policy development to improve surgical services in Uganda.
Recently, surgical services have been gaining greater attention as an integral part of public health in low-income countries due to the significant volume and burden of surgical conditions, growing evidence of the cost-effectiveness of surgical intervention, and global disparities in surgical care. Nonetheless, there has been limited discussion of the key aspects of health policy related to surgical services in low-income countries. Uganda, like other low-income sub-Saharan African countries, bears a heavy burden of surgical conditions with low surgical output in health facilities and significant unmet need for surgical care. To address this lack of adequate surgical services in Uganda, a diverse group of local stakeholders met in Kampala, Uganda, in May 2008 to develop a roadmap of key policy actions that would improve surgical services at the national level. The group identified a list of health policy priorities to improve surgical services in Uganda. The priorities were classified into three areas: (1) human resources, (2) health systems, and (3) research and advocacy. This article is a critical discussion of these health policy priorities with references to recent literature. This was the first such multidisciplinary meeting in Uganda with a focus on surgical services and its output may have relevance to health policy development in other low-income countries planning to improve delivery of surgical services.
Luboga
Sam
S
Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
Galukande
Moses
M
Mabweijano
Jacqueline
J
Ozgediz
Doruk
D
Jayaraman
Sudha
S
D003906:Developing Countries; D004501:Education, Medical; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006285:Health Planning; D006291:Health Policy; D006292:Health Priorities; D006801:Humans; D011050:Policy Making; D014454:Uganda; D000078329:Workforce