The evidence needed to make surgery a global health priority.

In their policy analysis, Yusra Ribhi Shawar and colleagues (August, 2015) outline the complex responses needed to make surgery a global health priority, highlighting as a major challenge that “consensus needs to be reached on solutions”. Professional interests might have forestalled consensus on the need to train and supervise non-surgeons to deliver surgical services in places where surgeons cannot be retained. However, sceptics are right to call, and donors to wait, for evidence on the feasibility, safety, cost-effectiveness, and outcomes of such models.