At a reception ceremony held recently at the hospital’s conference hall, officials of the hospital affirmed that the intervention of the Claros Foundation was crucial in that it had enabled patients who were not able to travel abroad for certain medical treatments due to high costs to be treated right here in the country for free.
Claros Foundation exists to fight against deafness, promoting all types of activities which aid its diagnosis and treatment (medical, surgical and/or prosthesic). It also offers humanitarian help to emergent countries to fight facial defects as well as facial tumours in addition to promoting and offering grants to young doctors to be trained in the specialty of otorhinolaryngology as well as head and neck surgery at Clínica Clarós, Barcelona. Furthermore, it promotes and sponsors the teaching of the specialties of otorhinolaryngology, speech therapy, odontology, face and neck surgery as well as facial plastic surgery.
According to the Chief executive Officer of the Serekunda Central Hospital, Baba Njie, Claros medical volunteers visited The Gambia last year and performed 54 successful operations.
He added: “When they came last year, the took a huge chunk of the patients on the waiting list and provided them with a medical aid for free, which they appreciated and they are hoping for more commitment this time around. So far, this time[around], they have carried out a total of 16 surgeries in just two days of their visit, and the hospital is hoping that more [patients] will be operated [upon during their stay]. We want the team to be visiting this country every year on a longer stay basis.”
The team leader of Claros Foundation, Pedro Claros, assured the management of the hospital that they are ready to keep coming to The Gambia provided “all logistics are met”, adding that “We are very impressed with the outcome of our activities last year and are hopeful of doing more this year”.
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