136th WHO Executive Board: UICC statement on surgical care

UICC delivered a statement (click here to read in full) calling for Member States to focus on strengthening essential surgical care for cancer. In particular, UICC highlighted the following key points:

• Surgery is a critical component of curative therapy for cancer, and vital in many palliative settings – globally cancer surgery is only second to  trauma and orthopaedics, and more complicated than general surgery for trauma cases;
• There is a need to address growing inequities in not only availability but also access to surgery services
• It is important to promote cross-cluster collaboration across WHO, international organisations and civil society to strengthen surgical services withing existing health delivery platforms including care for NCDs.