Emergency & Critical Care
All around the world, acutely ill and injured people seek care every day. First contact health workers manage children and adults with medical, surgical and obstetric emergencies, including injuries, sepsis, heart attacks and strokes, asthma and acute complications of pregnancy.
Many proven health interventions are time dependent. Emergency care is an integrated platform for delivering accessible, quality and time-sensitive health care services for acute illness and injury across the life course. Integrated emergency care services facilitate timely recognition, treatment management and, when needed, continued treatment of the acutely ill at the appropriate level of the health system.
Over half of deaths and over a third of disability in low- and middle-income countries could be addressed by the implementation of effective emergency and critical care. Prioritizing an integrated approach to early recognition, resuscitation, treatment and prevention of complications from acute conditions reduces the morbidity and mortality from a wide range of diseases across the life course.