A neglected priority? The importance of surgery in tackling global health inequalities

"I was thinking that I was already dead... now I can talk with you people, I’m so happy! ” These words, spoken quietly but with great warmth by a young woman devastated by a vesicovaginal fistula and restored to dignity through compassionate operative treatment, cut cleanly through divides of geography, culture, and class. More eloquently than any statistic she speaks of the life–changing and life–saving importance of surgical services in all health care systems. The woman’s testimony features in Jaymie Ang Henry’s film, ‘The Right to Heal’, a deeply moving piece of advocacy that makes a clear case for focusing far greater global attention on the huge need to achieve more equitable access to essential surgery. This is the case we take up here, with a particular focus on the needs of sub–Saharan Africa.