Anaesthesia provision challenges in public hospitals of Pakistan's Punjab province: a qualitative study of expert perspectives.

Improving anaesthesia provision in Punjab would require increasing physician and non-physician anaesthetist numbers and rotation to peripheral postings, strengthening training quality and ensuring availability of WFSA-specified essential equipment and supplies. To achieve essential anaesthesia provision standards, policy interventions are needed to, for example, balance anaesthesiologist and surgeon/obstetrician-gynaecologist numbers, require that anaesthesiology postgraduates work a few years in-country (eg, scholarship bonds), ensure in-service training attendance for skills updates and implement quality assurance standards for equipment and supplies.