Assessing surgical care in DRC's Kongo Central province

As with many global health challenges, the burden of untreated surgical conditions falls heaviest on individuals living in low-income and middle-income countries. 

It is within this context that our work in Kongo Central Province, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) focuses on improving the quality of surgical care. Here, a high burden of road traffic collisions on the road connecting the port cities to Kinshasa, coupled with the limited ability of patients to pay for the costs associated with surgery, and limited surgical capacity in the provinces’ hospitals, mean that large numbers of patients die or suffer disability each year, from operable conditions (Lancet Commission on Global Surgery). 

Earlier this year, King’s Global Health Partnerships embarked on a new project to improve surgical care, funded by the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung. Working in partnership with the Ministère Provincial de la Santé (Provincial Ministry of Health), and the Division Provincial de la Santé (Provincial Health Division), we are working with eight hospitals:

• At individual level, to improve the knowledge and skills of health workers delivering surgery
• At institutional level, to improve the equipment available for surgery
• At system level, to strengthen the collection and analysis of surgical data.

As part of this project, a baseline assessment of the provision of surgical care was conducted in the eight hospitals we are partnering with.

Our report: Surgical Care in Kongo Central: Challenges and Opportunities summarises four key findings on the volume and type of surgical care the population need and the human resource and infrastructure in place to meet the need.

Read more on the findings in our summary baseline report below.