# Social resource as a critical and overlooked factor for patient safety in low-resource settings

## TL;DR

The paper argues that social resources, not just physical or human resources, are crucial for patient safety in low-resource healthcare settings.

## Contribution

The paper introduces 'social resource' as a novel and critical factor for patient safety in low-resource healthcare environments.

## Key findings

- Social resources are distinct from physical and human resources in their impact on patient safety.
- Anaesthesia care in low- and middle-income countries is particularly affected by limited social resources.
- Investigating social resources could improve safe anaesthesia care globally.

## Abstract

Clinicians, NGOs, funders and academics (among others) in global health are accustomed to discussion of the “low-resource setting”. Commonly, the resources implicit in this term are physical (equipment, drugs) and infrastructural (electricity, water and sanitation) in nature. Human resources are well recognised as scarce in this context too, and the focus in most “workforce” research is on the number, distribution and/or training of healthcare workers. In this article, we make the case for closer examination of “social resource” as necessary to patient safety and distinct from simple enumeration of available/trained personnel. We use the clinical specialty of anaesthesia as a case study, identifying the different ways in which social resource is necessary to enable safe practice for anaesthesia providers, and the potential challenges to accessing social resource relevant in the low- and middle-income context. Finally, we suggest ways in which social resource for anaesthesia professionals in LMICs might be meaningfully investigated, with a view to improving its priority and access for safe anaesthesia care worldwide.