General Surgery in COVID: Challenges of a Government Sector Tertiary Care Medical University in a Developing Country and Lessons Learnt

• Main Authors: Kushagra Gaurav, Akshay Anand, Faraz Ahmad, Manish K. Agrawal, Awanish Kumar, Abhinav A. Sonkar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 2021-07-01
• Series: International Journal of Recent Surgical and Medical Sciences
• Subjects: general surgery; covid-19; developing; challenges; government
• Online Access: http://www.thieme-connect.de/DOI/DOI?10.1055/s-0041-1731980

Preserving resources and manpower is paramount in health care. It is important to ensure the ability of surgeons and specialized professionals to function through the pandemic. With one-sixth of world’s population residing in a single developing country, with public health care expenditure being less than 1.28% of the total country’s GDP and poor social protection, it seemed fighting a losing battle. However, a thoughtful and collaborative approach among leaders at every level has resulted in keeping the country afloat. The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic underlines the importance of a mindful utilization of financial and human resources. Modifying international guidelines to fit the region-specific needs as per available resources is expected. This article is based on real-time challenges and experiences of a surgical department of a government medical university in planning and preparing clinical pathways during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure high quality surgical care.