'Addressing emergency care inequalities in low-income countries'| Nursing Times
An emergency nurse in Pakistan discusses the systemic inequalities that prevent equitable access to emergency healthcare in low-income countries. The piece argues that infrastructure gaps and poverty turn treatable medical crises into fatal outcomes, violating basic health equity goals.
Why it matters
It draws attention to the global health disparity and the urgent need for infrastructure investment to meet UN sustainable development goals.
As an emergency nurse in Karachi, Pakistan, I have seen how quickly a treatable crisis can become a tragedy when help does not arrive on time.
In emergency care , minutes can decide whether someone lives, survives with disability or dies. Yet in many developing and low-income countries, survival is often shaped not only by illness or injury, but by poverty, distance, weak infrastructure and inequality.
“Nurses have a powerful role not only in saving lives at the bedside, but also in advancing global health equity”
For patients in rural villages, underserved communities, or low-income households, the ‘golden hour’ is too often lost before proper care even begins.
A mother with postpartum hemorrhage, a child with sepsis, or a father suffering a heart attack may face deadly delays simply because emergency systems are inaccessible.
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