Written by Anisa Jafar Consultant in Emergency & Paediatric Emergency Medicine

In May 2026, members of the WHO’s Acute Care Action Network (ACAN) were invited to a mid-year meeting at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) and GECCo very recently joined this network which is:

 “a global alliance of key stakeholders committed to saving millions of lives by advancing acute care through collaboration to meet the mandate of WHA 76.2 resolution”. 

This hallmark 2023 resolution from the World Health Assembly covered key objectives for integrated emergency, critical and operative care for universal health coverage and protection from health emergencies.

ACAN was first convened in 2024 with a view to delineate their strategy for advocating, funding, sustaining and scaling WHO’s acute care strengthening resources for implementation There were five operational priorities highlighted for the three years between 2025 and 2028 including: expanding the implementation of WHO acute care resources; implementing community first aid responder programs and researching care-seeking behaviours; supporting quality improvement; enhancing access to acute care at all levels of health systems; and assessing and planning at a system, pathway and delivery level. 

Based on the global strategy for integrated emergency, critical and operative care, 2026–2035 there are a set of strategic objectives from which ACAN have derived a comprehensive list of action areas due to be finalised by the end of 2026. These action areas were discussed during the group work of ACAN’s May meeting. The most important aspect of this was to find out what members of this alliance already doing/planning in alignment with the action areas. As such this reduces the likelihood of silo working, duplication and wasted resources – furthermore it creates the potential for collaboration, partnership and stronger/more sustainable working.

The six top-level strategic objectives are best summarised as follows:

1. Strengthening governance, financing and coordination at the national level as part of universal health coverage and health security agendas. 
2. Incorporation of relevant emergency/critical/operative (ECO) services within a universal health coverage package informed by strategic prioritization, cost and cost-effectiveness analyses; service-mapping to well-defined delivery platforms and settings; and design of people-centred care pathways
3. Integration of ECO into health workforce planning 
4. Evidence-informed development of national guidelines and context-specific clinical protocols and pathways with integrated quality and safety monitoring.
5. Use of data for decision-making and quality improvement 
6. Optimisation of ECO provision in settings affected by disasters, outbreaks and conflict. 

GECCo was first introduced to the idea of joining the ACAN during the 2025 Sheffield event when it was suggested by our key-note speaker and WHO Emergency Care lead  Lee Wallis (see his key-note as a great way to foreground the work of WHO in emergency care here). At the same time RCEM who have been doing an enormous amount of work with partners from different countries including especially Ethiopia, North West Syria, Uganda and Ghana had also become a natural member of the ACAN.

The meeting began with an introduction and a celebration in many ways of being able to bring so many of the WHO ACAN members together in one place.  Looking around the room it was remarkable how many people were familiar from different spheres of work and different collaborations whether it was colleagues from the African Federation of Emergency Medicine (who we supported with the RCEM-linked COVID-19 Rapid Evidence reviews), the Australian College of Emergency Medicine (who have their very own GECCo), International Federation of Emergency Medicine (Immed Past President and GECCo supporter is RCEM’s Ffion Davies), or University of Birmingham’s Director of WHO Collaborating Centre on Emergency, Critical, and Operative Care Justine Davies (you may remember her presentation for us in Edinburgh 2023) 

There were also UK colleagues who are not in emergency medicine itself  but are equally relevant in the space of acute care. For example of members of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists, various surgical specialities and World Rehabilitation Alliance. There was a series of updates from different members of the ACAN who spoke of their project progress in different domains. It was almost as if they knew there were many highly distractible emergency physicians in the audience,  given the quick-fire length of the presentations! 

There were several workshops to address the more detailed action areas under five separate themes in order to focus and structure the input of the work of the ACAN members. Given that GECCo comprises more than a 500-member community with a plethora of experience and expertise it is highly probable that some of our practice is already contributing to these action areas. The same will be true of the wider RCEM membership/fellowship.  It will therefore be of substantial value, once they are confirmed, to reach out and find out which work aligns with the ACAN’s work in order to facilitate partnerships and maximise efficient use of expertise.  Watch this space for that outreach in early 2027.