Cargando…

Evaluation of a surgical service in the chronic phase of a refugee camp: an example from the Thai-Myanmar border

BACKGROUND: Published literature on surgical care in refugees tends to focus on the acute (‘emergent’) phase of crisis situations. Here we posit that there is a substantial burden of non-acute morbidity amenable to surgical intervention among refugees in the ‘chronic’ phase of crisis situations. We...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Weerasuriya, Chathika K, Tan, Saw Oo, Alexakis, Lykourgos Christos, Set, Aung Kaung, Rijken, Marcus J, Martyn, Paul, Nosten, François, McGready, Rose
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3493322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22866971
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1752-1505-6-5
_version_ 1782249242564231168
author Weerasuriya, Chathika K
Tan, Saw Oo
Alexakis, Lykourgos Christos
Set, Aung Kaung
Rijken, Marcus J
Martyn, Paul
Nosten, François
McGready, Rose
author_facet Weerasuriya, Chathika K
Tan, Saw Oo
Alexakis, Lykourgos Christos
Set, Aung Kaung
Rijken, Marcus J
Martyn, Paul
Nosten, François
McGready, Rose
author_sort Weerasuriya, Chathika K
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Published literature on surgical care in refugees tends to focus on the acute (‘emergent’) phase of crisis situations. Here we posit that there is a substantial burden of non-acute morbidity amenable to surgical intervention among refugees in the ‘chronic’ phase of crisis situations. We describe surgery for non-acute conditions undertaken at Mae La Refugee Camp, Thailand over a two year period. METHODS: Surgery was performed by a general surgeon in a dedicated room of Mae La Refugee Camp over May 2005 to April 2007 with minimal instruments and staff. We obtained the equivalent costs for these procedures if they were done at the local Thai District General Hospital. We also acquired the list (and costs) of acute surgical referrals to the District General Hospital over September 2006 to December 2007. RESULTS: 855 operations were performed on 847 patients in Mae La Refugee Camp (60.1% sterilizations, 13.3% ‘general surgery’, 5.6% ‘gynaecological surgery’, 17.4% ‘mass excisions’, 3.5% ‘other’). These procedures were worth 2,207,500 THB (75,683.33 USD) at costs quoted by the District General Hospital. Total cost encountered for these operations (including staff costs, consumables, anaesthesia and capital costs such as construction) equaled 1,280,000 THB (42,666 USD). Pertaining to acute surgical referrals to District General hospital: we estimate that 356,411.96 THB (11,880.40 USD) worth of operations over 14 months were potentially preventable if these cases had been operated at an earlier, non-acute state in Mae La Refugee Camp. CONCLUSIONS: A considerable burden of non-acute surgical morbidity exists in ‘chronic’ refugee situations. An in-house general surgical service is found to be cost-effective in relieving some of this burden and should be considered by policy makers as a viable intervention.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3493322
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2012
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-34933222012-11-09 Evaluation of a surgical service in the chronic phase of a refugee camp: an example from the Thai-Myanmar border Weerasuriya, Chathika K Tan, Saw Oo Alexakis, Lykourgos Christos Set, Aung Kaung Rijken, Marcus J Martyn, Paul Nosten, François McGready, Rose Confl Health Research BACKGROUND: Published literature on surgical care in refugees tends to focus on the acute (‘emergent’) phase of crisis situations. Here we posit that there is a substantial burden of non-acute morbidity amenable to surgical intervention among refugees in the ‘chronic’ phase of crisis situations. We describe surgery for non-acute conditions undertaken at Mae La Refugee Camp, Thailand over a two year period. METHODS: Surgery was performed by a general surgeon in a dedicated room of Mae La Refugee Camp over May 2005 to April 2007 with minimal instruments and staff. We obtained the equivalent costs for these procedures if they were done at the local Thai District General Hospital. We also acquired the list (and costs) of acute surgical referrals to the District General Hospital over September 2006 to December 2007. RESULTS: 855 operations were performed on 847 patients in Mae La Refugee Camp (60.1% sterilizations, 13.3% ‘general surgery’, 5.6% ‘gynaecological surgery’, 17.4% ‘mass excisions’, 3.5% ‘other’). These procedures were worth 2,207,500 THB (75,683.33 USD) at costs quoted by the District General Hospital. Total cost encountered for these operations (including staff costs, consumables, anaesthesia and capital costs such as construction) equaled 1,280,000 THB (42,666 USD). Pertaining to acute surgical referrals to District General hospital: we estimate that 356,411.96 THB (11,880.40 USD) worth of operations over 14 months were potentially preventable if these cases had been operated at an earlier, non-acute state in Mae La Refugee Camp. CONCLUSIONS: A considerable burden of non-acute surgical morbidity exists in ‘chronic’ refugee situations. An in-house general surgical service is found to be cost-effective in relieving some of this burden and should be considered by policy makers as a viable intervention. BioMed Central 2012-08-06 /pmc/articles/PMC3493322/ /pubmed/22866971 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1752-1505-6-5 Text en Copyright ©2012 Weerasuriya et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Weerasuriya, Chathika K
Tan, Saw Oo
Alexakis, Lykourgos Christos
Set, Aung Kaung
Rijken, Marcus J
Martyn, Paul
Nosten, François
McGready, Rose
Evaluation of a surgical service in the chronic phase of a refugee camp: an example from the Thai-Myanmar border
title Evaluation of a surgical service in the chronic phase of a refugee camp: an example from the Thai-Myanmar border
title_full Evaluation of a surgical service in the chronic phase of a refugee camp: an example from the Thai-Myanmar border
title_fullStr Evaluation of a surgical service in the chronic phase of a refugee camp: an example from the Thai-Myanmar border
title_full_unstemmed Evaluation of a surgical service in the chronic phase of a refugee camp: an example from the Thai-Myanmar border
title_short Evaluation of a surgical service in the chronic phase of a refugee camp: an example from the Thai-Myanmar border
title_sort evaluation of a surgical service in the chronic phase of a refugee camp: an example from the thai-myanmar border
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3493322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22866971
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1752-1505-6-5
work_keys_str_mv AT weerasuriyachathikak evaluationofasurgicalserviceinthechronicphaseofarefugeecampanexamplefromthethaimyanmarborder
AT tansawoo evaluationofasurgicalserviceinthechronicphaseofarefugeecampanexamplefromthethaimyanmarborder
AT alexakislykourgoschristos evaluationofasurgicalserviceinthechronicphaseofarefugeecampanexamplefromthethaimyanmarborder
AT setaungkaung evaluationofasurgicalserviceinthechronicphaseofarefugeecampanexamplefromthethaimyanmarborder
AT rijkenmarcusj evaluationofasurgicalserviceinthechronicphaseofarefugeecampanexamplefromthethaimyanmarborder
AT martynpaul evaluationofasurgicalserviceinthechronicphaseofarefugeecampanexamplefromthethaimyanmarborder
AT nostenfrancois evaluationofasurgicalserviceinthechronicphaseofarefugeecampanexamplefromthethaimyanmarborder
AT mcgreadyrose evaluationofasurgicalserviceinthechronicphaseofarefugeecampanexamplefromthethaimyanmarborder