WFSA has called on African Member States to put anaesthesiology at the heart of their emergency medical team (EMT) planning, in a statement delivered to the 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa (RC76) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The statement, delivered by Stephen Okelo (Kenya) responded to the Regional Framework on Emergency Medical Teams, 2026–2030, which sets out how countries across the Region will develop and deploy EMTs over the next five years. Welcoming the framework, WFSA highlighted that emergency medical teams depend on functioning operating theatres and critical care — and that both depend on anaesthesiologists. WFSA urged Member States to recognise anaesthesiology as central to multidisciplinary team leadership rather than a supporting discipline.
The statement also called for full patient monitoring — including capnography and pulse oximetry — and essential pain management to be written explicitly into national EMT plans and their financing, and for national professional societies, who understand local contexts, to be engaged in team design, training and validation.
The statement is reproduced in full below.
Agenda item 12 — Regional framework on Emergency Medical Teams, 2026–2030 (AFR/RC76/8)
WFSA Member Society anaesthesiologists lead services in 33 countries across the Region. WFSA and our development partners welcome this framework.
The framework is clear that emergency medical teams require functioning operating theatres and critical care. Both depend on anaesthesiologists for airway management, resuscitation, intensive care and perioperative safety. Anaesthesiology should be recognised as central to multidisciplinary team leadership, not a supporting discipline.
Full patient monitoring in all theatres, including capnography and pulse oximetry, and essential pain management should be explicit within national EMT plans and their financing.
National professional societies understand local contexts for patient-centred emergency care. Member States should engage them in team design, training and validation.
WFSA and its partners stand ready to support this work.
