Injuries from incidents like road accidents, burns or violence are very common and are a major cause of death, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMIC). In a country like South Africa, this area of research demands a better understanding of what the barriers are to quality injury care.
With a view to addressing these challenges, Stellenbosch University (SU) recently received a substantial grant From the National Institute for Health and Care Research in the United Kingdom (NIHR) to research improved surgical outcomes in injury treatment.
For people who have been injured, it is vital to access quality care in good time to reduce the possibilities of disability or death, but there are still many barriers which cause delays to proper healthcare and the consequences can be dire.
The Centre for Global Surgery in the Department of Global Health at SU’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences will work with the University of Birmingham in a major study to help reduce the likelihood of unnecessary deaths of people from injuries arising from accidents or violence in developing countries. SU and the University of Birmingham were jointly awarded a grant worth R58 million. Of this, R13 million will go towards the research in South Africa.
Professor Kathryn Chu, Director of the Centre for Global Surgery is the co-Principal Investigator in the study which will build on partnerships with experts in Ghana, Rwanda and Pakistan.
The project builds on another recent NIHR-funded study led by the same team which identified 121 barriers to access to proper injury care in the sub-Saharan African countries of Ghana, South Africa and Rwanda. It will make use of a “four delays framework” which considers delays to seeking, reaching, receiving and remaining in high quality injury care. The researchers will gather information on where and how these delays affect the injured person in their care pathway. The aim is to inform policy makers in the respective countries on where interventions can be made to reduce these delays and bring about effective health treatments.
Chu said she feels extremely privileged to be awarded this grant. “This gives us the opportunity to dig deeper into some of the problems we discovered in our previous grant/work around accessing to care for injuries,” she said.
Asked why the research is particularly important in the South African and African context, she said: “Injury causes a large number of deaths and disability worldwide, especially in Africa where road traffic accidents and interpersonal violence can be high. In fact, injuries account for one in four emergency room visits in South Africa. Most injuries are time-sensitive conditions and delays to accessing quality injury care result in worse outcomes. In other words, if injured persons can reach care faster, survival is better and there will be fewer long term complications.”
Asked what she hopes to achieve with this research, Chu said: “We hope to apply the solutions from this research across Africa and Asia to improve access to quality injury care. The diversity of cultures, economies, and injuries in partner countries will allow researchers to identify delays and solutions that can be applied across different settings and others that are transferable outside of the four countries of this study.
“Study leaders will also train four PhD students and 14 junior researchers in countries with low resources. Training will be done through the development of research hubs in partner countries – these hubs will continue and train future LMIC researchers beyond the project’s end,” Chu said.
Photo caption: Prof Kathryn Chu
Photo credit: Damien Schumann
