Prioritization of surgical, obstetric, trauma, and anesthesia care in India over seven decades: A systematic analysis of policy documents.

Improving access to surgical care in India requires policy-level prioritization of surgical, obstetric, trauma, and anesthesia (SOTA) care. We quantified SOTA care prioritization in the last seven decades by analyzing India's national policy and programmatic documents. Forty documents of national importance over seven decades (1946-2017) were screened for a set of 52 surgical and 6 non-surgical keywords. The number of mentions per keyword was used as a proxy for surgical prioritization. For thematic analysis, surgical mentions were further classified into five domains: Infrastructure, Workforce, Service Delivery, Financing, and Information Management. The total number of mentions was 4681 for the surgical keywords and 2322 for non-surgical. The number of mentions per keyword was 90.02 for surgical keywords and 387 for non-surgical. The older committee reports showed relatively higher SOTA care prioritization compared to the years after 2010. Among the domains, Service Delivery (897) had the maximum number of mentions followed by Infrastructure (545), Workforce (516), Financing (98), and Information Management (40). National Health Policy 2017, the most recent high-level policy, grossly neglected SOTA care. SOTA care is inadequately prioritized in Indian national health policies, especially in the documents after 2010. Concerted efforts are necessary to improve the focus on financing and information management. Prioritization can be improved through a stand-alone national plan for SOTA care along with integration into existing policies.

Evaluating the status of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery indicators for India.

For universal surgical, obstetric, trauma, and anesthesia care by 2030, the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery (LCoGS) suggested tracking six indicators. We reviewed academic and policy literature to investigate the current state of LCoGS indicators in India. There was limited primary data for access to timely essential surgery, risk of impoverishing and catastrophic health expenditures due to surgery, though some modeled estimates are present. Surgical specialist workforce estimates are heterogeneous across different levels of care, urban and rural areas, and diverse health sectors. Surgical volumes differ widely across demographic, socio-economic, and geographic cohorts. Perioperative mortality rates vary across procedures, diagnoses, and follow-up time periods. Available data suggest India falls short of achieving global targets. This review highlights the evidence gap for India's surgical care planning. India needs a systematic subnational mapping of indicators and adaptation of targets as per the country's health needs for equitable and sustainable planning.