Anaesthesia is absent from most national workforce strategies in WHO’s South-East Asia Region. WFSA’s two statements to the 79th Regional Committee set out why that matters and what Member Societies offer.
WFSA has urged Member States across WHO’s South-East Asia Region to work with their national anaesthesiology societies to strengthen anaesthesia services, in two written statements submitted to the 79th session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia (RC79).
The first, on Agenda item 9.2 on ending preventable maternal, newborn and child mortality, congratulated Member States on mortality falling at more than twice the global pace, but warned that sustaining those gains depends on functioning anaesthesia, surgical and critical care systems. Facility birth will only deliver its full survival benefit where every hospital providing emergency obstetric care has access to an anaesthesiologist, essential medicines and monitoring. WFSA offered its SAFE Obstetric Anaesthesia, SAFE Cleft Anaesthesia and Essential Pain Management courses, delivered with national societies, to support scale-up.
The second, on Agenda item 6.1 on human resources for health and equity in specialized care, welcomed the Working Paper’s recognition of anaesthesiology among the specialties in most critical shortage. WFSA urged Member States to engage their national anaesthesiology societies as partners in workforce planning, projection and policy design, noting that these societies hold unmatched insight into training capacity, distribution and retention.
Across both statements, WFSA made the same offer: its Member Societies, workforce data and education programmes stand ready to support Member States and the Regional Office in building anaesthesia services that patients across the Region can rely on.
Both statements are reproduced in full below.
Agenda item 9.2 — Ending preventable maternal, newborn and child mortality in the South-East Asia Region in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Global Strategy on women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health (SEA/RC69/R3)
The World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists — whose Member Societies help lead anaesthesia services in eight of the 11 Member States of this Region — congratulates Member States on remarkable progress: maternal and child mortality falling at more than twice the global pace.
Sustaining these gains now depends on care that only functioning anaesthesia, surgical and critical care systems can deliver. Nearly 70% of maternal deaths in the Region result from direct causes — haemorrhage foremost among them — whose survival requires timely caesarean section, safe anaesthesia, effective patient blood management and critical care. With over 80% of births now occurring in health institutions, facility birth will only deliver its full survival benefit where every hospital providing emergency obstetric care has a trained anaesthesia provider, essential medicines and monitoring.
We note that congenital anomalies, such as cleft lip and palate, have become the third leading cause of under-five deaths. Many are surgically correctable. Investment in paediatric surgical and anaesthesia capacity, alongside the Region’s birth defects surveillance, would convert detection into survival.
Both priorities rest on workforce. The Region’s anaesthesiologist density remains among the world’s lowest, yet anaesthesia is absent from most national human resources for health strategies. We urge Member States to include anaesthesiology workforce targets in national planning, and we offer WFSA’s proven programmes — including SAFE Obstetric Anaesthesia, SAFE Cleft Anaesthesia, and Essential Pain Management courses, delivered with national societies — to support scale-up.
Safe anaesthesia along the patient pathway is not a luxury; it is vital to maternal and child survival. WFSA stands ready to support Member States and the Regional Office in implementing the Framework’s commitment to strengthening essential health services through primary health care.
Agenda item 6.1 — Human resources for health: Equity in specialized care
The World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists — whose Member Societies help lead anaesthesia services in eight of the 11 Member States of this Region — welcomes this Working Paper and its recognition of anaesthesiology among the specialties in most critical shortage.
Anaesthesia is the gateway to essential acute care. Without anaesthesia providers there is no safe surgery, no caesarean section, no trauma resuscitation and no critical care. Yet the Working Paper shows anaesthesiologist densities across the Region falling far below the OECD average, and gaps to the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery target of 20 anaesthesia, surgical, and obstetric physicians per 100,000 population remain prominent. Compounding this, anaesthesia is among the specialties most affected by international migration. Strengthening the anaesthesia workforce is therefore not a narrow specialty concern but a prerequisite for equitable emergency, critical and operative care, universal health coverage and health system resilience.
WFSA strongly supports the paper’s comprehensive approach: expanded domestic postgraduate training, rural retention incentives, safe and appropriately supervised task-sharing consistent with the WHO–WFSA International Standards for a Safe Practice of Anaesthesia, and the proposed regional network of health professional regulators and policymakers.
We urge Member States to engage their national anaesthesiology societies — WFSA’s members — as partners in workforce planning, projection and policy design. These societies hold unmatched insight into training capacity, distribution and retention. WFSA stands ready to support Member States and WHO through workforce data via the World Anaesthesiology Workforce Map, education programmes including SAFE Obstetric and Paediatric courses and fellowships, and technical expertise for the Ministerial Declaration.
Together, we can ensure every patient in the Region can access safe anaesthesia when they need it most.
