Assessing the Surgical and Obstetrics-Gynecology Workload of Medical Officers

Mehtsun, Winta T.; Weatherspoon, Kimberly; McElrath, La Portia; Chima, Adaora; Torsu, Victus E.K.; Obeng, Ernestina N.B.; Papandria, Dominic; Meheš, Mira; Ortega, Gezzer; Hesse, Afua A. J.; Sory, Elias; Perry, Henry B.; Sampson, J.B.; Anderson, Jean

doi:10.1001/archsurg.2012.449

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…For instance, districts hospitals in Ghana have an average of one Medical Officer at post, yet emergency Obstetric and Gynaecological surgeries have been previously reported to represent a substantial proportion of the clinical duties of Medical Officers. Particularly, obstetric complications often requiring caesarean section are the commonest cases encountered [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends and risk factors associated with stillbirths: A case study of the Navrongo War Memorial Hospital in Northern Ghana

et al. 2020

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Background Maternal and Child health remains at the core of global health priorities transcending the Millennium Development Goals into the current era of Sustainable Development Goals. Most low and middle-income countries including Ghana are yet to achieve the required levels of reduction in child and maternal mortality. This paper analysed the trends and the associated risk factors of stillbirths in a district hospital located in an impoverished and remote region of Ghana. Methods Retrospective hospital maternal records on all deliveries conducted in the Navrongo War Memorial hospital from 2003-2013 were retrieved and analysed. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to summarise trends in stillbirths while the generalized linear estimation logistic regression is used to determine socio-demographic, maternal and neonatal factors associated with stillbirths. Results A total of 16,670 deliveries were analysed over the study period. Stillbirth rate was 3.4% of all births. There was an overall decline in stillbirth rate over the study period as stillbirths declined from 4.2% in 2003 to 2.1% in 2013. Female neonates were less likely to be stillborn (Adjusted Odds ratio = 0.62 and 95%CI [0.46, 0.84]; p = 0.002) compared to male neonates;

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends and risk factors associated with stillbirths: A case study of the Navrongo War Memorial Hospital in Northern Ghana

et al. 2020

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“…Thus, improving surgical care warrants further research and global attention. 5,6 The World Health Organization's Global Initiative for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care has identified descriptive data gathering in low-income countries to be a research priority. 7 Sierra Leone was chosen as the study site because of its high burden of surgically treatable illness and the critical need to strengthen local surgical and anesthesia capacity.…”

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confidence: 99%

An Assessment of Surgical and Anesthesia Staff at 10 Government Hospitals in Sierra Leone

et al. 2015

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“…Our findings note that 36% (436/1211) of all gynecologic cancer procedures are performed at district-level hospitals. An emphasis on obstetric and gynecologic care to surgeons and mid-level providers has increased the capacity of smaller hospitals to provide hysterectomies and oophorectomies [14,21,37], overcoming Ghana's absence of a streamlined referral system [13]. This may be one method of improving cancer surgical care, however it will require further investigation of cancer outcome, access to adjuvant therapies, and application within other surgical specialties, prior to recommending such decentralization of care.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Global Surgical Oncology Benchmarks: Defining the Unmet Need for Cancer Surgery in Ghana

et al. 2021

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Background The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery (LCoGS) recommended an annual surgical rate at which low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) could achieve most of the population‐wide benefits of surgery. However, condition‐specific guidelines were not proposed. To inform rates of surgery for cancer, we sought to assess the current met and unmet need for oncologic surgery in Ghana. Methods Data on all operations performed in Ghana over a one‐year period (2014–15) were obtained from representative samples of 48/124 first‐level and 12/16 referral hospitals and scaled‐up for nationwide estimates. Procedures for cancer were identified by indication. Using modified LCoGS methodology with disease prevalence, Ghana's annual rate of cancer surgery was compared to that of New Zealand to quantify current unmet needs. Results 232,776 surgical procedures were performed in Ghana; 2,562 procedures (95%UI 1878–3255) were for cancer. Of these, 964 (37%) were surgical biopsies. The annual rate of procedures treating cancer was 2115 surgeries/100,000 cancer cases, or 21% of the New Zealand benchmark. Cervical, breast, and prostate cancer were found to meet 2.1%, 17.2%, and 32.1% of their respective surgical need. Conclusions There is a large unmet need for cancer surgery in Ghana. Cancer surgery constitutes under 2% of the total surgeries performed in Ghana, an important proportion of which are used for biopsies. Therapeutic operative rate is deficient across most cancer types, and may lag behind improvements in screening efforts. As cancer prevalence and diagnosis increase in LMICs, cancer‐specific surgical capacity must be increased to meet these evolving needs.

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Assessing the Surgical and Obstetrics-Gynecology Workload of Medical Officers

Abstract: Surgical and obstetrics-gynecology (Ob-Gyn) workload of medical officers (MOs) is substantial and may inform policies for training investment and surveillance to strengthen surgical care at district hospitals in Ghana.

Cited by 10 publications

References 26 publications

Trends and risk factors associated with stillbirths: A case study of the Navrongo War Memorial Hospital in Northern Ghana

Trends and risk factors associated with stillbirths: A case study of the Navrongo War Memorial Hospital in Northern Ghana

An Assessment of Surgical and Anesthesia Staff at 10 Government Hospitals in Sierra Leone

Improving Global Surgical Oncology Benchmarks: Defining the Unmet Need for Cancer Surgery in Ghana

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