The GSF Annual Report 2020 is now available
With the GSF being officially launched in January 2020 – just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly spread around the globe – we moved quickly to adapt our activities. Some planned activities needed to be modified or postponed, whereas other activities increased as the needs presented.
The GSF 2020 Report includes the result of our programming and growth strategy, as well as an outlook for 2021.
Letter from our Executive Lead, Dr. Geoffrey Ibbotson
2020 was unprecedented in modern history. The world shut down while the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged even the most affluent countries, causing collateral damage that is as significant as the direct impact of the virus itself, resulting in further death and disability.
Worldwide, lockdowns have resulted in minimal or no access to emergency and cancer surgery. An estimated 28 million surgeries were cancelled or delayed during the 3-month lockdown period in early 2020 alone, while data for the subsequent lockdowns remains unknown. Time will only tell how many women and infants died because they could not get a caesarian section in childbirth, how many children and young adults died or were disabled because they could not receive emergency surgery, and how many cancer patients progressed to incurable stages of disease or death due to delayed treatment.
Currently, the backlog of urgent surgery continues to overwhelm healthcare systems, creating long waitlists which will result in increased death and disability for those patients whose treatment has been delayed. This -the unseen impact of the pandemic- will have enormous consequences on communities and economies around the world.
COVID-19 has brought into clear focus the obvious: strong, resilient healthcare systems must be a top priority for countries.
It was into this new world that the Global Surgery Foundation (GSF) was launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 22, 2020 – just as the world’s leadership was starting to realize that the pandemic was gaining momentum. Despite the significant impact of COVID-19, frontline healthcare workers and like-minded organizations from around the world rallied to join the GSF.
Throughout the past year, the GSF has communicated the important message that having a strong surgical care system will provide an effective foundation for the overall healthcare system – one that will be better prepared to cope with the strain of emergencies and pandemics. Through our activities in 2020, the GSF has become recognized as a preeminent platform for hosting events and training and has reached more than 5,000 direct beneficiaries, which reflects the power of our network of partners.
We are very thankful to our founding members, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the Harvard Program in Global Surgery and Social Change (PGSSC), and the Rali and Makentse Mampeule Foundation (RMMF), for their support through the early development of the GSF.
Indeed, the achievements in this 2020 Annual Report would not have been possible without our founding members, partners and volunteers. Now is the time to act. Advancing towards a world in which all people have access to the treatments they need will require our relentless efforts – and we count on your support.
The time is now. Let’s act together.
Download the GSF Annual Report 2020