By Amadou Jadama
A Gambian philanthropist based in the United States of America, Lamin Jawara and his wife, recently gave five hemodialysis machines, one revers osmosis machine and consumable for the machine worth over five hundred thousand dalasis to the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital.
The donation came at a time the country is in much need of such equipment as there are lots of dialysis patients in the country.
During the handing over, Abubacarr Jagne, deputy Chief Medical Director of EFSTH, said: “The Gambia has a lot of kidney patients like all Africans or black. We are so prone to kidney diseases and because of that our problems are quite difficult to handle.”
He admitted that the resources are not available, adding that there is no country that can do all alone, much more a resource-constrained country like The Gambia.
“The amount of money spent on kidney diseases and its problem or dialysis problem for quarter of a year is almost 25 million dalasis which is a lot of money, and that is only dialysis and not to talk about other issues that the patients have that are related to kidney,” he said.
Dr Lamin S Sima, a nephrology specialist, said it is incumbent on everybody to contribute your quota towards national development and to ensure that the country moves forward.
He added that the equipment donated would ease the burden and support efforts in ensuring that dialysis patients access the much needed healthcare.
Dr Sima expressed gratitude to Mr Jawara and his wife for providing such a laudable gesture to the country’s main referral hospital.
For his part, Lamin Jawara the donor, disclosed that the situation of Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital needs everybody’s help.
“There are many other health facilities in this country and we could have donated these items to them, but we decided to choose Banjul hospital because it is the only referral hospital in The Gambia. All complicated cases are referred to this hospital,” he said.
Mr Jawara added that anything donated to EFSTH is meant to equally assist other health institutions in the country.
