Access to critical care in African hospitals is a matter of life and death, according to a recent study published in The Lancet. The study, which is the largest of its kind in Africa, reveals that one in eight patients in African hospitals is critically ill, with a mortality rate of one in five within a week. The researchers behind the study stress that many of these lives could have been saved with access to inexpensive life-saving treatments.
Being critically ill in this context means having severely affected vital functions, such as extremely low blood pressure or low oxygen levels in the blood. Shockingly, 69% of critically ill patients are treated in general wards rather than intensive care units, and more than half of them do not receive even the basic critical care they need, such as oxygen therapy, intravenous fluids, or simple airway management.
Lead author Tim Baker, an Associate Professor at the Department of Global Public Health at Karolinska Institutet, emphasizes the importance of these basic but crucial health interventions. He points out that if all patients had access to essential emergency and critical care, mortality rates could be significantly reduced. These interventions are inexpensive and can be provided in general wards, making them accessible to a larger population.
The study, which surveyed nearly 20,000 patients in 180 hospitals across 22 African countries, is a collaboration between Karolinska Institutet and universities in South Africa, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, and the UK. It is the first large-scale mapping of critically ill patients in Africa, shedding light on the urgent need for improved access to critical care in the region.
For more information on the study, you can refer to the original article published in The Lancet. The findings underscore the critical need for affordable and accessible critical care interventions in African hospitals to prevent unnecessary deaths and improve overall healthcare outcomes in the region.
