Anaesthesiologist-intensivist phycisians at the core of the management of critically ill COVID-19 patients in Africa: persistent challenges, some resolved dilemma and future perspective

Sustaining the Australian respiratory workforce through the COVID‐19 pandemic: a scoping literature review

“…The preparation of health services for the pandemic was discussed in papers from the United States, 19 , 21 , 40 , 45 Singapore, 15 the United Kingdom 26 and Cameroon 38 with a strong focus on the ability to rapidly increase intensive care capacity. 15 , 19 , 21 , 38 The daunting lack of intensive care bed capacity on the African continent is highlighted by Metogo and colleagues.…”

“…The preparation of health services for the pandemic was discussed in papers from the United States, 19 , 21 , 40 , 45 Singapore, 15 the United Kingdom 26 and Cameroon 38 with a strong focus on the ability to rapidly increase intensive care capacity. 15 , 19 , 21 , 38 The daunting lack of intensive care bed capacity on the African continent is highlighted by Metogo and colleagues. 38 Other key health services issues were identified, including the need for rapid development of testing and isolation protocols 15 , 19 and retraining, even of very senior staff, to augment the critical care workforce.…”

“… 15 , 19 , 21 , 38 The daunting lack of intensive care bed capacity on the African continent is highlighted by Metogo and colleagues. 38 Other key health services issues were identified, including the need for rapid development of testing and isolation protocols 15 , 19 and retraining, even of very senior staff, to augment the critical care workforce. 15 , 19 , 26 , 45 …”

“…15,19,21,38 The daunting lack of intensive care bed capacity on the African continent is highlighted by Metogo and colleagues. 38 Other key health services issues were identified, including the need for rapid development of testing and isolation protocols 15,19 and retraining, even of very senior staff, to augment the critical care workforce. 15,19,26,45 Commentaries Commentary papers identified critical workforce issues, such as early recognition of the need for HCW protection, 5,7 the speed of the outbreak during wave one in globally recognised early hotspots 5,16 and aspects of healthcare systems that might have exacerbated outbreaks (such as just-in-time supply chains that limited access to PPE) 34 and that required rapid adaption to manage the surge (including in-hospital physical distancing strategies, HCW screening for infection, rapid uptake of telehealth and prompt redeployment of staff).…”

Building Critical Care Capacity in a Low-Income Country

“…As many African countries, physician-anaesthesia providers play a leading role in management of critical illness 11 ; however, this health workforce is still a key bottleneck for the appropriate provision of critical care health services, with key challenges such as inadequate numbers of anesthesiologists, limited skills, retention, motivation, and service delivery. 12 According to the Ministry of Health, only one-quarter of the anesthesia human resource required in Uganda as of 2020 had been met to match the Health Sector Development Plan 2020 (eg, Uganda has less than 30 registered public sector anesthesiologists compared with the 359 required).…”