| Code | SH.MED.SAOP.P5 |
| Indicator Name | Specialist surgical workforce (per 100,000 population) |
| Short definition | Specialist surgical workforce is the number of specialist surgical, anaesthetic, and obstetric (SAO) providers who are working in each country per 100,000 population. |
| Long definition | Specialist surgical workforce is the number of specialist surgical, anaesthetic, and obstetric (SAO) providers who are working in each country per 100,000 population. |
| Source | Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, uri: www.lancetglobalsurgery.org, note: Data collected by the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery;
WHO Collaborating Centre for Surgery and Public Health, note: data collected by WHO Collaborating Centre for Surgery and Public Health at Lund University from various sources including Ministries of Health or equivalent national regulatory bodies, national official entities such as medical councils, Eurostat, OECD, WHO Euro Health For All Database, WHO EURO Technical resources for health Database;
BMJ Glob Health |
| Topic | Health: Health systems |
| Dataset | WDI |
| Unit of measure | Per 100,000 population |
| Periodicity | Annual |
| Reference period | 2008-2018 |
| Aggregation method | Weighted average |
| Statistical concept and methodology | Methodology: The number of specialist surgical, anaesthetic, and obstetric (SAO) providers who are working in each country per 100 000 population.
Statistical concept(s): The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, assembled in 2013 to assess surgical care around the world. Commissioners engaged in an iterative global consultative process with partners in over 110 countries to develop six core indicators of the strength of a surgical system. Two indicators assess a country’s preparedness to deliver safe surgery and anesthesia, two assess the current delivery of safe care, and two assess the state of financial risk protection for those seeking surgery. |
| Development relevance | Billions people lack access to safe and affordable surgical, anesthesia and obstetric (SAO) care while a third of the global burden of disease requires surgical and/or anesthesia decision-making or treatment. Treating the sick very often requires surgery and anesthesia. Despite such huge burden of disease, safe and affordable SAO care is often overlooked. |
| Limitations and exceptions | Prior to 2015, global data on surgery, anesthesia and obstetric care was virtually nonexistent. With the idea that “We can’t manage what we don’t measure”, the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery developed six Surgical, Obstetric and Anesthesia (SAO) indicators and collected data for them. The analysis of these data show large gaps in SAO care across countries by income groups. |
| License URL | https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/public-licenses#cc-by |
| License Type | CC BY-4.0 |
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