Challenges to Achieving Surgical Equity in Slums

There is a critical lack of surgical data on individuals who live in urban slums, which hampers the allocation of healthcare resources and the provision of preventative measures. The complex interplay of factors affecting surgical care in slums, such as trust deficits, mental health concerns, and socioeconomic barriers, necessitates a distinct academic approach. We propose that researchers should consider "slum surgical health" as an area of study separate from urban health or slum health. From this perspective, we make a case for defining "slum surgical health" while presenting evidence from multiple countries that shows the unique challenges of providing surgical care in slum settings. We discuss a successful model that has deployed community health worker programs as intermediaries between slum dwellers and healthcare providers. This model, which achieved a 60% conversion rate from unmet to met surgical needs, demonstrates the potential of culturally sensitive, community-based approaches to address surgical inequities in urban slums.