EMERGENCY in the BMJ: ANME as a Sustainable and Collaborative Model of Care

A new article in the BMJ Global Health journal highlights how EMERGENCY’s ANME Regional Programme is expanding access to free, high-quality specialised surgical care through cross-border collaboration with health authorities in sub-Saharan Africa.

In low- and middle-income countries, access to specialist surgical care is often hampered by inadequate infrastructure, a shortage of qualified staff and limited financial resources. In Africa, the surgical burden is particularly stark.

Directly addressing these challenges, the African Network of Medical Excellence (ANME) is an initiative launched in collaboration with health authorities from across Africa. With its two flagship surgical Centres of Excellence – EMERGENCY’s Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Sudan, and Children’s Surgical Hospital in Uganda – ANME is strengthening local health systems and expanding access to free, high-quality specialist care throughout the region.

Key to this is the Regional Programme, which builds partnerships with Ministries of Health to conduct local outpatient visits for screening, referral and follow-up to an ANME Centre of Excellence. The Programme covers all travel, accommodation, surgery, follow-up and medications, removing the major financial barriers often associated with surgery. By 2024, 190 screening and follow-up missions had reached over 16,000 patients in 28 countries, with 2,024 patients receiving specialised care at EMERGENCY’s hospitals.

Together with the Regional Programme, these publicly accessible referral hospitals demonstrate that high-quality specialised care, delivered free of charge to patients determined by clinical need – rather than by nationality or income – can be sustainably achieved when supported by long-term governmental commitment. They offer a concrete step toward strengthening the regional health system, as well as a replicable model for other resource-limited settings.