Joint position paper on rural surgery and operative delivery

Our professional organizations have prepared this paper as part of an integrated, multidisciplinary plan to ensure the availability of well-trained practitioner teams to sustain safe, effective and high-quality rural surgical and operative delivery services. Without these robust local (or nearby) surgical services, sustaining rural maternity care is much more difficult. This paper describes the 'network model' as a health human resources solution to meet the surgical needs, including operative delivery, of rural residents; outlines necessary policy directions for achieving this solution; and poses a series of enabling recommendations. Nos organisations professionnelles ont prepare cet article dans le cadre d'un plan multidisciplinaire integre visant a assurer la disponibilite d'equipes soignantes bien formees pour offrir des services obstetricaux interventionnels et chirurgicaux securitaires, efficaces et de grande qualite en milieu rural. Sans de tels solides services chirurgicaux locaux (ou de proximite), il est beaucoup plus difficile d'assurer les soins obstetricaux en milieu rural. Cet article decrit le << modele en reseau >> comme une solution au chapitre des ressources humaines en sante pour repondre aux besoins chirurgicaux des populations rurales, y compris pour les services obstetricaux interventionnels. On y decrit aussi les orientations politiques necessaires a l'application de cette solution et on formule une serie de recommandations preparatoires.
OVERVIEW The precipitous attrition of small-volume surgical programs in rural Canada over the past 2 decades has led to the need for rural residents to travel for even the most [...]