The World Health Organization and Member States have committed at the 76th World Health Assembly to “reorienting health systems to primary health care as a resilient foundation for universal health coverage.” Under this vision, there is renewed momentum for addressing the challenges—and opportunities—of providing emergency and essential health services when and where people need them. Surgical, obstetric, trauma and anaesthesia care is an integral component of resilient health systems prioritizing primary health care.

A primary health care approach to universal health coverage includes emergency and critical care services provided without delay, the delivery of basic surgical, obstetric, trauma and anesthesia care at first-level hospitals and health centers, and robust systems for referral and transport when necessary. Surgical services readily available at early levels of care may include the surgical management of traumatic injuries, obstetric complications, life-threatening abdominal conditions, and a range of congenital and other neglected surgical issues.

When surgical, obstetric, trauma and anesthesia care is not available as part of PHC, patients bear the significant costs related to transportation, missed work and school, and ultimately lost time—which leads to disability and death that could have been prevented. Strengthening the surgical capacity of first-level hospitals is a proven and cost-effective strategy to address the global burden of disease from surgical conditions, to manage health care resources, and to advance universal health coverage.

The 2015 World Health Assembly Resolution 68.15 represented a unanimous commitment by Member States to strengthening emergency and essential surgical care and anaesthesia as a component of universal health coverage. The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery presented a global picture of surgical need—estimating that two-thirds of the human population did not have access to safe, affordable surgical and anaesthesia care when needed. Since 2015, countries around the world have undertaken strategic plans to increase their health systems’ capacity to deliver surgical, obstetric, trauma and anaesthesia care, with an emphasis on primary health care and universal health coverage. Implementing these strategies will require not only political commitment, but ambitious technical and financial resources and coordination across health system levels and sectors.

This multi-stakeholder event, happening alongside the 76th World Health Assembly, will recognize critical progress made by global, regional, and national champions from over the last decade, commitments by Member States to build systems that put the most vulnerable people first through national strategies and new resolutions, and opportunities for scaling this work through continued and expanded collaboration and partnership between governments, multilateral institutions, and civil society.