GLOBAL EMERGENCY MEDICINE
Taking Emergency Care to the World Stage at the World Health Assembly: A New Resolution on Emergency and Trauma Care
SAEM PULSE | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2019
By Tsion Firew, MD, MPH
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It has been more than 12 years since the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution on emergency care. In the past 12 years, the burden of diseases in most of the world has changed significantly from communicable diseases to noncommunicable diseases. The time to galvanize the agenda on emergency care was past overdue; therefore this year, a resolution on emergency care titled, “Emergency care systems for universal health coverage: ensuring timely care for the acutely ill and injured” was proposed by the governments of Ethiopia and Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland). The resolution was co-sponsored by more than 30 countries leading to its adoption at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland in May 2019.
The adoption of this resolution at the World Health Assembly sheds light on the importance of emergency care and urges countries to take actions towards strengthening their emergency care systems. The resolution, as a new global mandate, can be used as an advocacy platform to create awareness on the importance of integrating emergency care into ongoing universal health coverage planning processes. It provides the opportunity and challenges countries to strengthen and expand high-quality emergency care to every corner of the world. In the age of social media as an essential tool of communication, it is encouraging to see the director general of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,
tweet about the importance of emergency care! Time to roll up our sleeves and continue to do what we do every day — advocate for our patients locally and globally! Emergency care saves lives, and we are ready to provide care anytime, anywhere, for anyone…24/7/365.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tsion Firew MD, MPH, is an emergency physician and special advisor to the Minister of Health of Ethiopia. She is an assistant professor at Columbia University. @drtsion