Lasting impact: a qualitative study of perspectives on surgery by adult recipients of free mission-based surgical care in Benin.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore how adult patients who received free mission-based elective surgery experienced surgery and its outcomes, in order to provide recommendations for improved service delivery, measurement of impact and future quality initiatives for the humanitarian organisation Mercy Ships and other mission-based surgical platforms.

Setting: Data were collected in June 2017 in Cotonou, Benin, where the participants had previously received free mission-based elective surgery aboard the a non-governmental hospital ship.

Participants: Sixteen patients (seven male, nine female, age range 22-71, mean age 43.