THE EMERGING CONCEPT OF RURAL SURGERY

Eighty percent of the world population still has no access to second l evel basic surgical care, an integral part of any total health care de livery system but not funded by governments of developing countries. O n the other hand, countries like India produce very many qualified sur geons from western-designed tertiary care teaching institutions, and m any of these settle in smaller towns and rural areas which lack such p rofessionals. They start in a small way and then form a team, mostly f rom the local community, build a small hospital, use local resources a s much as possible, and sophisticated equipment when it is affordable, and provide both primary and second-level health care. They perform a ll types of surgery including obstetrics and gynaecology, thus living up to the needs of the community, and also become agents of health car e development in their area. These surgeons are community-based, multi purpose surgeons of necessity, innovative in nature, and keen on cost- effectiveness and patient compliance. Some of these surgeons have form ed the Association of Rural Surgeons of India, which held its first Na tional Conference of Rural Surgery in October 1993. In this paper, we deal with this emerging concept of rural surgery as a speciality which is very relevant to meeting the health care requirements of 80% of th e world's population.