Anesthesiologist
Without you, surgery cannot happen – and Africa needs far more of you.
What this life looks like
Every operation that has ever been performed in a modern hospital has required an anaesthesiologist. You are the doctor who makes surgery possible – you sedate the patient, manage their airway, monitor their vital signs throughout the procedure, control their pain, and bring them safely back to consciousness. You also manage pain outside the operating theatre, provide critical care in intensive care units, and lead emergency resuscitation teams. Anaesthesiology is one of the most technically demanding and most vigilance-intensive specialties in medicine – small errors can have catastrophic consequences, so precision and focus are everything. In Africa the shortage of anaesthesiologists is one of the primary reasons that surgery cannot scale to meet the continent's surgical needs. No surgeon can operate without a safe anaesthetist. Training in this specialty means you are not just saving individual patients – you are unlocking the surgical capacity of entire hospitals.
What she actually does
An Anaesthesiologist assesses patients before surgery, selects and administers anaesthetic agents, manages the patient's airway and ventilation during procedures, monitors and maintains cardiovascular stability, controls pain intraoperatively and postoperatively, manages patients in intensive care units, leads resuscitation and airway emergency teams, and provides obstetric anaesthesia for caesarean sections and pain relief in labour.
Where you can work
| Sector | Places in Africa |
|---|---|
| Operating theatres and surgical wards in all hospital levels | Lagos University Teaching Hospital Theatre Suite (Nigeria), Groote Schuur Hospital Anaesthesia Dept (South Africa), Kenyatta National Hospital Operating Theatres (Kenya), Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (Ghana) |
| Intensive care units | Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital ICU (South Africa), Aga Khan Hospital Nairobi ICU (Kenya), Lagos Island General Hospital ICU (Nigeria), Muhimbili National Hospital ICU (Tanzania) |
| Obstetric units | Pumwani Maternity Hospital (Kenya), Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital Obstetrics (South Africa), Federal Medical Centre Owerri Labour Ward (Nigeria) |
| Pain management clinics | Netcare pain management centres (South Africa), Aga Khan Hospital Pain Clinic (Kenya), Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre Pain Unit (South Africa) |
| Emergency departments | Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital Emergency Unit (South Africa), Lagos State University Teaching Hospital Emergency (Nigeria), Kenyatta National Hospital Casualty (Kenya) |
| Academic anaesthesiology departments at African medical schools | University of Cape Town Dept of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, University of Lagos Dept of Anaesthesia, University of Nairobi Dept of Anaesthesiology, Makerere University Dept of Anaesthesia (Uganda) |
Why it matters in Africa
The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery identified anaesthesia workforce as one of the most critical bottlenecks to expanding surgical care in Africa. Many African hospitals that have trained surgeons cannot perform procedures because there is no safe anaesthetist available. Anaesthesia-related death rates in Africa are estimated to be up to 1000 times higher than in high-income countries, largely due to workforce shortages and equipment limitations.
Your pathway in
Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics at secondary school. Then MBBS or MBChB over five to six years, followed by housemanship. Anaesthesiology residency and fellowship through the West African College of Surgeons Faculty of Anaesthesia or equivalent body in your region follows over four to five years. Subspecialisation in paediatric anaesthesia, obstetric anaesthesia, cardiac anaesthesia, or pain medicine can follow.
Skills you will need
Technical: Airway management, drug pharmacology for anaesthetic agents, haemodynamic monitoring and management, regional anaesthesia techniques, ventilator management, and resuscitation. Human: Exceptional vigilance and the ability to monitor multiple parameters simultaneously over long periods, calm decision-making in emergencies, precision with drug dosing, and clear communication with surgeons and theatre teams. Digital tools: Anaesthetic monitoring systems, ventilator technology, drug infusion pumps, and electronic anaesthetic record systems.
A woman in this field
Prof. Olaitan Soyannwo
Nigeria
Nigerian Professor of Anaesthesia at the University of Ibadan and the first home-trained fellow in anaesthesia in Nigeria. She has served as Head of the Department of Anaesthesia and Dean of Clinical Sciences at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, and is a co-founder of the Society for the Study of Pain, Nigeria. She led her team to establish the first palliative care unit in a tertiary institution in Nigeria at University College Hospital, Ibadan in 2007, and has championed pain relief and palliative care far beyond Nigeria's borders. She is a former President of the International Association for the Study of Pain and foreign secretary of the Nigerian Academy of Science.
Take your first step
Chemistry and Biology are the core subjects – anaesthesia is fundamentally about pharmacology, which is the science of how drugs affect the body. Build these foundations strongly. If you have access to a hospital, ask whether you can observe in an operating theatre – understanding what anaesthesia looks like in practice will give you a clear picture of the career. Look up the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists, which has resources specifically aimed at improving anaesthesia training in Africa.
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