At the 78th World Health Assembly, Clinical Services and Systems and Laerdal Global Health launched the Acute Care Transformation initiative, with an initial $12.5 million commitment to expand Basic Emergency Care (BEC) training in 400 hospitals across Africa. The initiative aims to grow through the Lifeline Acute Care Action Fund, targeting $25 million to reach 1,000 hospitals and save an estimated 50,000 lives annually. This effort supports the goals of the Acute Care Action Network (ACAN) and will contribute to WHO’s upcoming Global Strategy for Integrated Emergency, Critical and Operative Care.

Local Innovation for Integrated Care (LINC) is a series of audio conversations featuring remarkable health workers and planners from hospitals and health systems around the globe. Each of these pioneers has developed innovative strategies to deliver integrated, people-centered healthcare in their local contexts.

During the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly, delegates passed a decision requesting the Director-General’s support to develop a global strategy and action plan for integrated emergency, critical and operative care, 2026-2035. The strategy and action plan will facilitate implementation of Resolution WHA 76.2 on Integrated emergency, critical and operative care for universal health coverage and protection from health emergencies. Amidst concurrent human and natural disasters, national health services are under increasing pressure to deliver effective ECO care. Such services address people’s health needs across the life course, including infections and injuries, complications during pregnancy and birth, and heart attacks and stroke.

The UHC Service Planning Delivery & Implementation (SPDI) Platform supports countries in designing and implementing service packages for UHC and support countries to implement context-relevant packages and respond more effectively to emergencies. The SPDI Platform is powered by the UHC Compendium database, which spans the full spectrum of promotive, preventive, diagnostic, resuscitative, curative, rehabilitative, and palliative services – providing rapid one-stop access to supporting evidence and associated human and material resource inputs required for package implementation.

The WHO Clinical Registry provides standardized case-based data on patient presentation and management in emergency units, allowing for comparison, aggregation and performance monitoring at facilities and across the health system.

WHO has established the Technical Advisory Group on Integrated Clinical Care (TAG-IC2) to provide expert advice for clinical services, including primary, emergency, critical and operative care. TAG-IC2 advises WHO on the development and revision of integrated evidence-base guidance, standards, protocols and pathways across these four delivery channels.