In May 2014, the world’s health leaders gathered in Geneva, Switzerland at the United Nations for the 67th World Health Assembly. Operation Smile attended the annual assembly and later co-hosted a private reception in support of the World Health Assembly’s Side Event: Improving Safe Emergency and Essential Surgical Care and Anaesthesia.

This represents an important moment for global surgery, as this is the first time an official event related to surgical care has been included as part of the World Health Assembly. Dr. Edward Kelley, Director of Service Delivery and Safety at the World Health Organization, opened the assembly and underscored the fact that surgery is relevant as a global public health intervention. Global partners were in widespread agreement that now is the time for collective action to ensure access to essential surgery for those in need.

Research shows that roughly 2 billion people lack access to surgery. This lack of access to surgery accounts for approximately 11 percent of the world’s death and disability. The surgical burden of disease is even higher in low and middle income countries. This burden of disease can be treated, palliated or cured with safe surgery. Despite the high death toll and disability caused by the lack of surgery, and despite the fact that it is widely acknowledged that surgery is an essential component of a functioning health system, surgery has been largely excluded from global public health priorities. The facts are staggering: Each year more people die because of lack of access to safe surgical care than from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

More than 234 million major surgical procedures are performed each year globally. Data shows the wealthiest one-third of the world’s population receive 75 percent of all surgical procedures, while the poorest one-third of the world’s population receive only 3.5 percent. In many resource-poor environments children’s congenital anomalies, such as cleft lip and cleft palate, go unaddressed, injuries go untreated, and easily addressable surgical conditions result in preventable deaths and chronic disability with significant emotional, social and economic consequences.

“Access to essential surgery is an incredibly important global public health issue and this is a defining moment for the global surgery movement,” said Kristin Hatcher, Associate Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Metrics at Operation Smile, who attended the World Health Assembly events in Geneva. “The reality is that a significant, urgent and growing need exists. We see children in desperate need of surgical care day in and day out around the world. But there is a solution. We know how to bring high quality, safe surgery to children in need, even in the most challenging environments. Our collective challenge is to galvanize this momentum into action so that our efforts result in increased access to care for patients around the world.”

About The Side Event: Improving Safe Emergency and Essential Surgical Care and Anaesthesia The Side Event was attended by more than 200 people and delegates emphasized the importance of access to safe emergency and essential care and scaling up training of medical professionals to ensure adequate human resources for health. The Side Event was organized by the delegations of Zambia, Nigeria, the United States of America, Kenya, Senegal, Rwanda, Mongolia, Egypt, Timor-Leste, Trinidad and Tobago, Botswana, Australia and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as well as the International Federation of Surgical Colleges, the International Society of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology and the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists. The event was held in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency and Essential Surgical Care Programme, the WHO Department of Service Delivery and Safety, the WHO Regional Office for Africa and the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean.