Skip to main content
KBS_Icon_questionmark link-ico
safe surgery training_banner ;

King's awarded funding to support safe surgery in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Dr Elizabeth Khadija Tissingh

Partnership Lead, Democratic Republic of the Congo, King's Global Health Partnerships

22 March 2022

Surgery is an essential part of good healthcare and yet 5 billion people lack access to safe, timely and affordable surgical care. International attention is largely focused on the prevention and management of infectious diseases. However, the burden of disease requiring surgical intervention – such as trauma, cancer, infection, and complications from childbirth – is substantial and growing.

The African Surgical Outcomes Study1 demonstrated that African surgical patients are twice as likely to die following surgery when compared to the global average.  

The south-west province of Kongo Central in DRC has known relative stability for decades but the health needs of its 6 million population are not met. Most people lack access to safe, timely and affordable surgery. Barriers include the lack of a trained healthcare workforce, and poor infrastructure and equipment. For patients who are able to access surgical care, there are often complications and outcomes are poor.

King's Global Health Partnerships has been working for a number of years with the provincial ministry of health, the division of health, healthcare institutions and universities to strengthen the health care system, with a particular emphasis on improved care for trauma and emergencies. In 2017 we held the first training course to improve surgical care.

 

Surgeons DRC

Our approach is informed by the WHO Safer Surgery Saves Lives initiative, which comprises a number of tools including WHO guidelines for Safe Surgery and the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist. Supported by grants from the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Johnson & Johnson, THET and individual donations and working with senior provincial leadership, the programme was introduced to the four main hospitals in the province. Through training, support with purchasing equipment and mentorship, the pillars of safe surgical practice have become established in the province.

 

Safe surgery training Boma DRC manikin

Now, a new programme of work, funded by the Else Kroner Fresenius Stiftung, will build on, and expand, this existing work. It will work at three levels to improve the quality of surgical care: with individuals, institutions and systems. We will work at a strategic level with the ministry and division of health to support surgical data collection and management. We will also work with the four referral hospitals and four district-level hospitals to upskill clinical staff. Using a Training of Trainers approach, involving previously trained health workers at tertiary level, we will upskill non-specialists at the district level.  

They will learn to improve infection prevention and control (through appropriate gloving and gowning procedures, hand washing, sterilisation of equipment, antimicrobial stewardship), deliver safe anaesthetic care (promoting use of pulse oximetry and patient monitoring) and improve theatre practice (promoting use of the WHO checklist, swab counts). The programme will also foster mentoring relationships that will enhance cooperation between different levels of the health system in the province. Collaborative research activities and peer-to-peer learning are built into the design of the project.

 

Safe surgery training DRC

We will also be supporting, in partnership with Medical Aid International, the development of sustainable surgical practice with the purchase of solar lighting for theatres and Ecoclaves for sterilisation.

Here in Kongo Central, the old Bas Congo province, we lack surgeons. Surgery is carried out by general doctors who operate in their own way. Sometimes this gives good results, sometimes this gives bad results. It is only recently that we have started to have surgeons, trained in surgery in general, who have started to work in the Bas Congo province.– Dr Lelo Ngoma, surgeon from Matadi, DRC
1Biccard BM, Madiba TE, Kluyts HL, et al. Perioperative patient outcomes in the African Surgical Outcomes Study: a 7-day prospective observational cohort study. Lancet 2018 doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(18)30001-1   

In this story

Elizabeth Khadija Tissingh

Elizabeth Khadija Tissingh

Partnership Lead, Democratic Republic of Congo, King's Global Health Partnerships

Latest news