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GLOBAL SURGERY - A REVIEW OF THE PAEDIATRIC SURGICAL WORKFORCE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

BACKGROUND
Background Surgical conditions lead to premature death and disability resulting in a massive economic burden. Contributing to this global crisis is the lack of data on the limited surgical workforce in many low and middle income countries (LMICs).


METHOD
All paediatric surgeons were contacted during the period 1-28 February 2017 via email as well as during a congress which was held at Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, and a database was compiled. An international comparison of South Africa's paediatric surgical workforce was then performed with several countries.


RESULTS
The Results showed 5.55 paediatric surgeons per one million population under 14 years. More than half (55%) were male and the average age was 39.5 years. The majority of the paediatric surgical workforce was found in Gauteng (40.0%), followed by the Western Cape (27.7%) and Kwa-Zulu Natal (21.1%). The majority of qualified specialists reportedly worked in the public sector (n = 24), followed by dual practice (n = 21) and lastly in the private sector (n = 8). These numbers fell far below developed countries such as the United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA), but compared favourably with Canada, China and Ireland.


CONCLUSION
Strengthening surgical systems, which includes mapping surgical workforce, will reduce the surgical burden of disease and improve health outcomes globally. This description of the paediatric surgical workforce provided insight into the surgical capacity of South Africa. Furthermore, it provided a comparison between South Africa and the rest of the world.