Background: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) for 2030 aims at <70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. South Africa (SA) falls short of this goal and most deaths occur in district and regional hospitals. Due to low anesthesiologist (specialist anesthetist) numbers in the public sector, the anesthetic workforce in these hospitals consists mainly of nonspecialist (general practitioner) junior doctors with limited supervision.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Safe anesthesia is indispensable to achieve global safe surgery and equitable health care access. The disease burden and lack of specialists in South Africa (SA) require junior, nonspecialist doctors to be fit-for-purpose from day 1 when they provide anesthetic services in peripheral hospitals with limited supervision. Graduating students report low self-perceived preparedness for administering anesthesia, but it is not known how their curricular experiences influence their learning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Safe anesthesia is imperative for the Global Surgery agenda and Sustainable Development Goal 3. Due to a shortage of specialists in South Africa (SA), anesthetic services are often provided by nonspecialist doctors, often newly qualified and frequently without immediate supervision. The burden of disease in the developing world demands fit-for-purpose, day-one medical graduates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAfr J Emerg Med
December 2021
Introduction: SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in increased worldwide demand for personal protective equipment (PPE). With pressure from ongoing epidemic and endemic episodes, we assessed an adapted snorkel mask that provides full-face protection for healthcare workers (HCWs), particularly during aerosol-generating procedures. These masks have a custom-made adaptor which allows the fitment of standard medical respiratory filters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Data on the factors that influence mortality after surgery in South Africa are scarce, and neither these data nor data on risk-adjusted in-hospital mortality after surgery are routinely collected. Predictors related to the context or setting of surgical care delivery may also provide insight into variation in practice. Variation must be addressed when planning for improvement of risk-adjusted outcomes.
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