Global surgery as an equal partner in health: no longer the neglected stepchild

The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery's vision is “universal access to safe, affordable surgical and anaesthesia care when needed”.1 5 billion people, largely the poor, marginalised, and rural, face impossible hurdles and for all practical purposes are excluded from what is often life-saving or disability-averting treatment.2 For many it is simply lack of money; for others it is the tyranny of distance and poor travel infrastructure. The remainder who can afford it and can travel the distance arrive to find a feeble health-care system with too few surgeons or anaesthetists, no medications, no oxygen, or no blood.