By Amadou Jadama
The head of the labor ward at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital has called on Gambians with the means to support the country’s healthcare system.
Dr Abdoulie Keita made this appeal Wednesday as he received an inverter and six heavy-duty batteries from a businessman, Alhaji Salifu K Jaiteh, a longtime donor to the health sector.
The items costing D170,000 are meant for the Labor Ward in Banjul.
Speaking at the handing over ceremony, Dr Keita expressed profound gratitude to Salifu Jaiteh and used the occasion to reveal the sorry state of the facility and the Gynecology Department where all complicated cases from Kartong to Koina are referred to.
“Even Senegalese women cross the border to come here for treatment,” he said.
He revealed that the Department has achieved great success in terms of development because it has even started post graduate training, producing Gambian doctors to a special level in the country.
“Despite those achievements, there are challenges because this Department was built somewhere in the 1970s, before I myself was born. The country’s populations, doctors, nurses and the number of patients increased over time but this infrastructure remains the same,” Dr Keita said.
He disclosed that major challenges at the facility include electricity supply. “Currently, we have Chinese, Cubans and Australian doctors working with us but sometimes I feel embarrassed during operations when light goes on and off. Sometimes we even have to use our mobile phones to complete the operations. This Department needs support. It needs to be expanded. My Matron can bear me witness sometimes we are forced to discharge people prematurely or sometimes two adults are forced to share a bed,” Dr Keita lamented.
He called on people with the means such as Salifu Jaiteh to help the unit expand with more admission beds, better equipped theatre and build an emergency facility. “This Department does not have an Emergency place and a very busy place like this needs an Emergency where doctors and nurses can be stationed for 24 hours,” he said.
Handing over the items, Salifu K Jaiteh expressed delight and explained that this donation is in reply to a request to support the Labor ward with an alternative power supply to protect lives during and post deliveries in case of any power failure.
Mr Jaiteh who is also the Honorary Consul of Cyprus in the Gambia said he feels it as a duty to share his profits with the people of the Gambia in any way possible especially the people in need and hospitals.
He said he has always been in the forefront when it comes to helping the health sector and could have delivered the items much earlier had it not been challenges especially on the part of business dealing with cement importation which was disrupted by the imposition of heavy tax.
