Patient Perspectives on Barriers to Surgical Care and the Impact of Mobile Surgery in Ecuador

Background An estimated 5 billion people worldwide lack access to timely safe surgical care (Gawande in Lancet 386(9993):523–525, 2015). A mere 6% of all surgical procedures occur in the poorest countries where over a third of the world’s population lives (Meara et al. in Surgery 158(1):3–6, 2015). Mobile surgical units like the Cinterandes Foundation endeavor to bring surgical care directly to these communities who otherwise would lack access to safe surgery. This study examines the barriers patients encounter in seeking surgical care in rural communities of Ecuador and their impressions on how mobile surgery addresses such barriers.