A five-day training for health doctors and nurses to help improve their work in the application of standard and quality treatment for patients with terminal conditions Monday commenced at the National Nutrition Agency (NaNA) in Kanifing, some 7 km from Gambia’s capital Banjul.
Organised by the National Palliative Care Association of the Gambia (NPCA) in collaboration with the Ministry Health and funded by African Palliative Care Association (APCA) based in Uganda, the training will also provide sensitisation to health workers on palliative care and pain management.
“At the end of the day, we expect that participants’ understanding of Gambia’s health care and hospital settings would be improved,” NPCA president Alieu D Badjie said.
He said palliative care in the Gambia has not been well improving in the past years because people’s understanding of it was not promoted.
“There is a system in place where people with palliative are taken care of. It can be done at home and at hospital,” he said.
The deputy director of Health Services, Dr. Samba Ceesay, said the training mainly targets doctors and nurses at Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital and other health facilities in the country, saying it is important for doctors and nurses to be trained to help them manage patients’ conditions during admission.
Dr. Saikou Sabally, a task force member of NPCA and Professor Ousman Nyan, provost of school of medicine and allied health services at the University of The Gambia both agreed that the training is important in health work and it will greatly help in the management of health conditions.
