More people can die from treatable surgical conditions in days to come

More people could die from treatable common surgical conditions in Pakistan during the Covid-19 era as the capacity of the healthcare system with respect to surgical care has not been expanded to cater to rapidly increasing needs in the country, warned health experts while speaking at the inaugural session of the 6th Aga Khan University (AKU) Annual Surgical Conference titled "Surgical Education and Training: Developing Standards". Hammad Ather, Professor of surgery at AKU and Chair of the event organising committee, stated: " Long-term and short-term commitments are needed by the government bodies as well as the private sector to address the shortage of trained surgical specialists, non-uniform presence of trained surgeons in urban and rural areas and absence of a centralised structured training body."