Billions of people around the world live in regions with too few specialist physician anaesthetists, meaning many have limited access to essential healthcare. Often, the most unwell patients requiring surgery and intensive care are babies, children, pregnant women or young people experiencing trauma. But anyone can find themselves needing surgery at some point in their life. Sadly, for the population in Zambia and Ethiopia, surgery can be very difficult to access and, when it is available, can lack essential safety standards, partly due to the number of specialist anaesthetists being critically low.
Anaesthetists are essential for safe surgery, and they also lead Intensive Care units caring for the most unwell patients, including those with COVID-19. This pandemic has sadly highlighted the significant deficit of specialist anaesthetists in Zambia and Ethiopia. It is more urgent than ever that we train more anaesthetists to combat this shortage.
We have launched our #12GiftsforSafeSurgery campaign to raise funds for the 12 most essential things our charity needs to be able to support the training of even more specialist anaesthetists in 2022, working towards ensuring everyone has access to safe surgical care when they need it.
Training costs which include training equipment, facilities hire e.g. for conferences and courses.
Volunteer and staff support.
Stationary e.g. printing resources.
Online resources
Developing training rooms and spaces conducive for learning.
Developing technological infrastructure, e.g. Wi-Fi and AV equipment in the training rooms and spaces.
We also use our funding to help develop areas of clinical care. For example, we pay for research costs, quality improvement projects and equipment that is used for clinical care also (especially during COVID).
In this season of giving, every donation to the campaign will make a lasting difference. Even donating the money that you would use on Christmas cards, wrapping paper, and the mix & match gift sets that always get re-gifted can make a huge difference to people who really need it. Imagine, no wastage for landfills, no last-minute crowds, no awkward tit-for-tat gifting; just pure positive impact on the lives of people who currently do not have access to safe surgery because of a lack of specialist anaesthetists.
We invite you to donate whatever you can afford to this campaign, and experience how it feels to leave a legacy that lasts for much longer than 1 day of the year.
You can watch us unveil the #12GiftsforSafeSurgery this month by following us on social media:
Instagram: @globalanaesthesia_partnerships
Twitter: @globalanaes
Facebook: @InfoGADP
Disclaimer: Any surplus funds raised towards the 12 Gifts will go towards other areas of work of the charity that supports the provision of safe anaesthesia. Read more about our mission here.