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Peer-reviewedCC BYJournal of health, population, and nutrition

Ensuring equitable emergency, critical and operative care.

  • Tim Baker1,2
  • Carl Otto Schell3
  • Pauline Convocar4
  • Fitsum Kifle5
  • Niranjan Kissoon6
  • Nobhojit Roy7
  • Karima Khalid8
8 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. [email protected].
  2. 2Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. [email protected].
  3. 3Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
  4. 4International Federation of Emergency Medicine, Manila, Philippines.
  5. 5Debre Berhan University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
  6. 6Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
  7. 7George Institute for Global Health, Mumbai, India.
  8. 8Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
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Abstract

Conditions requiring emergency, critical and operative (ECO) care account for a substantial proportion of preventable mortality and disability worldwide, yet ECO systems remain fragmented and underdeveloped in many settings. Recent global policy advances, including the adoption of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy and Action Plan for Integrated ECO Care by the World Health Assembly, provide an important opportunity to strengthen these systems. However, implementation must prioritise equity. ECO care spans a wide spectrum of complexity and cost, from basic triage, oxygen therapy and essential operations to advanced intensive care and specialised surgery. Given finite resources, health systems should first ensure universal access to foundational ECO care: early recognition of illness, basic airway and oxygen support, essential medications, monitoring, infection prevention, and timely referral. Approaches such as Essential Emergency and Critical Care (EECC) offer a feasible, highly cost-effective minimum standard of care, and prioritising such foundational ECO care is both an ethical imperative and the most effective pathway to achieving equitable population-level health gains.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{baker2026ensuring,
  title = {{Ensuring equitable emergency, critical and operative care.}},
  author = {Tim Baker and Carl Otto Schell and Pauline Convocar and Fitsum Kifle and Niranjan Kissoon and Nobhojit Roy and Karima Khalid},
  journal = {Journal of health, population, and nutrition},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1186/s41043-026-01472-x},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42902363},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Ensuring equitable emergency, critical and operative care.
AU  - Tim Baker
AU  - Carl Otto Schell
AU  - Pauline Convocar
AU  - Fitsum Kifle
AU  - Niranjan Kissoon
AU  - Nobhojit Roy
AU  - Karima Khalid
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/20
JO  - Journal of health, population, and nutrition
DO  - 10.1186/s41043-026-01472-x
UR  - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42902363
AB  - Conditions requiring emergency, critical and operative (ECO) care account for a substantial proportion of preventable mortality and disability worldwide, yet ECO systems remain fragmented and underdeveloped in many settings. Recent global policy advances, including the adoption of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy and Action Plan for Integrated ECO Care by the World Health Assembly, provide an important opportunity to strengthen these systems. However, implementation must prioritise equity. ECO care spans a wide spectrum of complexity and cost, from basic triage, oxygen therapy and essential operations to advanced intensive care and specialised surgery. Given finite resources, health systems should first ensure universal access to foundational ECO care: early recognition of illness, basic airway and oxygen support, essential medications, monitoring, infection prevention, and timely referral. Approaches such as Essential Emergency and Critical Care (EECC) offer a feasible, highly cost-effective minimum standard of care, and prioritising such foundational ECO care is both an ethical imperative and the most effective pathway to achieving equitable population-level health gains.
SN  - 1606-0997
SN  - 2072-1315
ER  -