News

For those of us on the ground in Sierra Leone, the challenges we face daily in providing healthcare services underscore the grave disparities present across the various corners of our planet when it comes to our ability, or lack thereof, to heal. In Sierra Leone, the most dramatic example of the challenges we face is the severe lack of qualified professionals equipped to handle our nation's diverse and growing healthcare needs, particularly in relation to surgical care.

We celebrate World Health Day on April 7th, 2023, and I thought it is a good time to reflect on what “Health for All” means on the African continent.  In 2015 and 2017, the World Health Assembly (WHA) passed Resolution 68.15, and decision 70(22) respectively. Resolutions which recognised surgical and anaesthesia care as essential for universal health coverage and required the director-general to report on the progress of its implementation.  While much progress has been made to document and elevate the status of surgical and anaesthesia care internationally, things have unfortunately not progressed equally on the African continent. Life-transforming surgery has a massive impact, not just on the patient, but on their caregivers, direct family, their community, and beyond.   It is now more important than ever to ask, how we can we improve this? How do we do this better?  

On February 14, a special day of celebration took place in the Port of Dakar, Senegal. A long-awaited sight was on the horizon as the newly built Mercy Ship, the Global Mercy™, sailed into view. Designed to deliver hope and healing to nations with limited surgical capacity, the Global Mercy is now ready to live her purpose. This year marks the first in an expected 50-year lifespan of specialized free surgeries taking place on board.