Despite the clarification made by Information Minister Demba Ali Jawo indicating that statements reportedly
attributed to the the country’s Health minister ‘were not accurate’, medical doctors last Thursday agreed to go ahead with a 48-hour strike action.
The Health Minister, Saffie Lowe-Ceesay was quoted in local media as saying doctors are diverting drugs behind closed doors to start a
pharmacy business.
“We wish to express our disappointment in, and concern for the lack of leadership demonstrated by the minister of Health and Social Welfare Saffie Lowe-Ceesay, during the recent West African College of Surgeons International Conférence,” read a statement endorsed by the Medical and Dental Association of the Gambia (MDAG) and the
Association of Résident Doctors – The Gambia (GARD).
The move taken by medical doctors was preceded by an ultimatum given to Minister Saffie Lowe-Ceesay to step down. They raised concerns over “the lack of responsible leadership, vision, and institutional inertia
demonstrated by the Minister of Health and Social Welfare.”
As doctors embarked on strike, fears mounted among the population over possible delays, disruptions that would affect health facilities across the country. Patients were gripped by anxiety as some of them, who were supposed to undergo an operation, feared to face surgical cancellations.
“All doctors are around. I have not heard any complaints coming from a doctor or a patients, ” Serrekunda Hospital Public Relations Offficer Alieu Badjie told this reporter.
When asked whether there was any disruption in the functioning of Gambia’s second-largest health facility, he said the hospital is functioning smoothly in spite of rumours of a threatened strike.
Inside Serrekunda Hospital, there was no visible signs of major perturbations as the normal routine continues…
However, the situation took a different turn in Banjul where the strike seemed to have gained momentum.
Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital spokesperson Modou Lamin Jammeh, who spoke to this reporter said all residents doctors failed to come to work.
“To some extent, the strike has some impact, but the services are running.The senior doctors are all working,” he said when contacted on Friday.
The striking doctors have vowed to take the issue to another level if authorities fail to accede to their demands…
Written by Abdoulie JOHN
Positive sign that democracy is alive and well in today’s Gambia/
Mike,
Don’t speak so loud about democracy in The Gambia. Going on strike to revindicate one’s right is just a minute drip of democratic exercise–when not coerced of course–especially with this VERY BAD, NERVOUS, INEPT and CORRUPT administration. But what happened to the striking teachers just a few weeks ago?
I never heard of any civil servant going on strike during Jammeh’s dictatorial rule and the last time there was a demonstration of any kind resulted in an innocent man tortured to death and few innocent women molested by Jammeh’s reprehensible operatives. So seeing teachers and doctors on strike showed how far we have gone from the dark days of Jammeh’s dictatorship.
I recently traveled through Banjul International Airport and was amazed to see the changes at the Customs check out. No more are citizens luggage used as a tool of blackmail by the unscrupulous customs agents in order to solicit funds illegally nor was any Jammeh’s toy soldiers with their AK 47’s.
Also Kanilai is no more a separate sovereign territory as was under Jammeh, where residents were allocated free electricity, free running water, discounted goods and a restricted area for other Gambians.
The lying hypocrites who aided and abet dictatorship in our homeland, rejoiced at the demise of their fellow citizens, praised the barbaric nature of Jammeh’s misrule as progress are still in denial of the disgraceful defeat they suffered and wants to drag us down using false,twisted and one sided commentary to meet their ends. No lies can stop us now. Democracy at last.
It is one thing to exercise your rights, it is something else to blackmail. Democracy goes both ways. The Minister has a right to her opinion, unfiltered as it where. The Resident doctors also have a right to be angry. The first step in a democratic process is dialogue. You don’t just demand that an Official be fired just because you disagree with their view. It gets more complicated when you know your actions will likely injure those whose health you are oath bound to protect. Physicians should never use patients suffering as a bargaining tool, ever, anywhere, anytime. I am not saying that the doctors should not seek remedy, but I am disgusted with the method. Where they my trainee, non of them will remain in my program today. That is a guarantee.
Our doctors and teachers are going/went on strike because they learnt that Barrow lavishly spent our money on a hotel/office quarters at Senegambia, millions of dalasis at the Fajara state house, millions of dalasis on the Marabouts in Senegal, millions of dalasis on per diem emoluments on his USELESS trips with buddies to Europe, Congo Brazzaville, The USA, to The Mecca with buddies, on his children’s schooling in the USA, his wife’s unofficial office, his wives’ Yai Kompin tours in the URR and Jarra etc etc………..
When teachers and doctors are living witnesses to these IRRESPONSIBLE squandering with their poor salaries, and a silly corrupt Health Minister vilifying the QUALIFIED personnel without proofs, there is no option than telling this bunch of CORRUPT and USELESS people that enough is enough.
With President Jammeh, every Gambia citizen, every household had a bite of the national cake. So what was the need for a STUPID strike?
Those who rode on good roads, landed at an excellent international airport and enjoyed other excellent amenities only saw the excellent work of a PATRIOTIC son of the Gambia, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya AJJ Jammeh Babili Mansa.
Today Kanilai like most parts of the country are in darkness. Who will provide energy? President Jammeh?
Good roads soaked with the blood of scrambling Gambian children after the biscuits thrown through the windows of Jammeh’s moving motorcade. Landed at an excellent airport whose waste grounds were used for target practice on our innocent citizens and their bodies buried in un-marked graves. A faked ass Sheikh, a faked ass professor, a faked ass doctor who enjoyed killing that he had to do it on national television by administering poisonous concoctions to aid sufferers to hasten their demise. 149 landed properties, 14 companies, countless number of bank accounts, 30 million Dollar mansion in USA amassed within a 22 year period, all stolen from the Gambian people. One should wonder why the black outs. What happen to our power stations? How old are our working generators in our power stations? How many millions dished out during all those frivolous parties in Kanilai and other parts of the country? How many millions given away to Senegalese artists and wrestlers? A patriotic son? I will leave that to others to think it over……
God bless our nation.
The blood of innocent Gambians soaked the streets of Banjul, the roads to Serrekunda, Brikama, Brikama Nyambai, Mandinaba, the then Yundum Airport when the Senegalese invading forces rolled their antiquated armoured vehicles to butcher our heroic citizens and civilians alike in 1981. All under the tentative instructions and observation of Jawara, BB Darbo, Omar Jallow(OJ), Abdou Diouf….. That was the time Gambian blood really flooded the streets and public places of our country. 800 +1(Haruna Jatta) innocent victims of Senegalese brutality at the instructions of Ex-President Jawara and Adama Barrow.
President jammeh left an indelible legacy of development which this INEPT, CORRUPT, CORRUPTIBLE, TRIBALIST administration is now enjoying
Yap, whatever your erratic rantings, Jammeh with Saul Badgie, Osman sonko, and many of their co abusers will end up at the ICC or the African equivalent in Dakar. You think you can waffle your way through with gibberish after committing such heinous crimes against Gambians.
The entire decent humanity is unanimous about Jammeh’s human right’s abuses, hence the the overwhelming vote against him at the UN during the so called impasse.
Gambians say no to Jammeh and everything he stands for, primitive witch hunting and all . Never again!!!!
A What? An indelible legacy of development? No! but an indelible legacy of deviation, deviation from democracy to dictatorship. A deviation from the observance of the rule of law to the rules of the jungle, where innocents were made to disappeared in thin air, where citizens killed and their dead bodies dumped in wells or buried in remote fields without religious rites. A deviation from fraternity among citizens to open tribal hatred. No development under Jammeh can wash away the blood of the innocent citizens and non citizens he killed.
Babu, what’s the real object of your dissent and your anti New Gambia stance.
I will state that at your professed level, that is your claim to have been educated and call Europe home, I would expect you to show more finesse in your approach to sensible discourse. The position of Yaya Jammeh or nothing else is akin to Jingoism.
We cannot be seen to do business as we always have if we look to achieve different results this time around. That is an untenable situation. Frankly, your position and narratives are becoming absolutely sour, unintelligent and devoid of substance. Where Yaya Jammeh started at zero, he and the APRC can only go up but that certainly doesn’t imply that The Gambia couldn’t be above and beyond where we find ourselves today. We would have been miles ahead if Yaya was not the plunderer that he is proven to be!
On the subject of Gambian doctors, I believe that the Minister has hit the nail on the head square on. The bad eggs in the system are of the majority. Cheap skates, the majority are and I wouldn’t trust them to inject anyone with a needle unless it was removed from a sealed and non tampered package.
Gambian doctors are mostly inept, out of touch with advances in modern medicine, lazy and corrupt with little regard for professional and/or board certification and the pursuit of continuing education. A good number of them clearly do not deserve the title, Doctor in any other part of the western world. For once they complete studies in unaccredited institutions, they will hurriedly pursue what amounts to a houseman-ship, head back home with a white lab coat and stethoscope to hang on the neck to claim the doctor title.
Upon completion of a stint at one of the government hospitals, they set up ill equipped, dusty and unsanitary private clinics, typified by a clinic that was opened on a dusty road across from the Brikama Area Council and then proceed to take advantage of Gambians that can ill afford the services. All that the malevolent doctors see are Dalasi, Euro and Dollar signs when patients walk through their doors.
We have all heard horror stories of Gambians traveling abroad to seek medical treatment with local prescriptions in their possession for reference. To their surprise, the new doctor would toss all medicines in the trash bin right in front of their eyes. A rude awakening at that!
Show me a Gambian doctor’s office that offers a copy of the Lancet, JAMA or other world renown medical publication in a well organized library and I’ll bet that they were donated by friends and family abroad.
I bear testimony to a Gambian doctor’s answer to a question on the treatment of Flu like symptoms. The doctor’s response was that the protocol in The Gambia was to rule out Malaria by treating for Malaria in the first instance when Flu like symptoms are found. Then one finds that the same doctor may write a prescription for antibiotics, pain medication, allergy medication and possibly an injection of what may very well be a placebo. Really?
In The Gambia, Medical Board endorsement is akin to membership of a social club where sanctions are seldom levied against those that go against the grain of the Hippocratic oath or are in plain contravention of established norms of best practice.
The fact remains that Gambian doctors and attorneys are all caught up in the nightmarish rat race that abounds in The Gambia. So the basic tenet is that money talks. Take a look at personal hygiene and fingernails that lend a clue to the standards of sanitation at doctors’ facilities and you’ll be disappointed. We must learn to call a spade a spade in this new Gambia if we are to up the standards of service delivery.
We may not agree with the statements of the Minister but they are not totally out of context for the evidence is there for all to see. Her statements are not mere accusations but hard facts and circumstances that are omnipresent if only one cares to look!
This Minister must stay put and not go anywhere. Where the doctors refuse to show up for work, they must all be sacked and then put through a thorough vetting process one by one in order to regain employment.
At the minimum, a set number of continuing credits, to be earned over a period of five years, aimed at enhancing professional standing must be mandatory in The Gambia for all doctors, nursing assistants, Agriculturists, Engineers and other professional cadres. Where the UTG and/or Medical Board are ill equipped to perform the role, the health ministry may invite and partner with external bodies to set up these structures on a contractual arrangement while empowering the relevant bodies in tandem.
Only then will there be any guarantees that folks don’t earn degrees and then settle down to rust at the expense of The Gambia once these very professionals find their place in the sack of beans.
Andrew, The Gambia Medical and Dental Council as of Jan 2018 require 30 or so CME credits per year to maintain licensure. I don’t particularly like the way the program is set up, but it’s a start. You already know how I feel about doctors on strike, it is criminal, but the Minister must talk less and do more in improving the healthcare sector in the country.
Andrew Pjalo, J
I really get disappointed at people like you who start trashing out at others for not thinking/believing the way they do. That’s the scourge of our society, where Babu has to be an Andrew Pjalo to be respected or considered learned. Don’t bother much about my level of education, Andrew. I got more educated here in Holland not to satisfy Andrew or gain his recognition, but for my personal aspirations/progress.
May I once again affirm to Andrew that I’m well beyond that tenet of living to satisfy the expectations of an individual, especially in the political sphere.
I really get disappointed at your analogue which only revolves around the Jammeh period, thereby bypassing the nefarious Ex-President Jawara period that was the most horrendous era of our time not to mention the colonial subjugation.
You are so bias about the management period of President Jammeh, which indeed face-lifted the Gambia from her somber decadence of the PPP misrule, that I take very little from your political debate. May I presume that you witnessed both periods (Jawara and Jammeh)? If not, I indulge you to make a thorough research of what we inherited from Jawara and his PPP in 31 years.
Has the Minister of Health ever talked over the level of corruption with the doctors in any tete-a-tete session with them? Has she ever shown her discontent about the level of corruption through any official correspondence? Why the blatant irresponsible manner of vilifying a sector of qualified personnel? I would rather sacrifice the services of this irresponsible minister than the lot of our medical core as you so erroneously suggested.
Why did you all take on Hamat Bah about his statements on Thailand and Senegal?
Could you please single out one promise made by this INEPT, CORRUPT, CORRUPTIBLE, TRIBALIST clique of USELESS administrators during the 2016 campaign period that has been fulfilled? Then I’ll tell you my anti-Barrow stance, not the new Gambia that was born in 1994!
Now the insane lone voice is borrowing or i would say adopting a new title. No surprise there as his criminal boss Yahya Jammeh adopted more names and titles for himself than any man or woman who ever lived on this planet except IDI Amin Dada of Uganda, so claiming that The New Gambia was born in 1994 falls under the opus operandi of Jammeh and his insane minded acolytes. The irony of a Jammeh’s die hard supporter beating the drum of anti corruption and corruptible practices is a thick choke-able hypocrisy unrivaled anywhere in the civilized world. A paupers son turned Millionaire within a 22 year period at the expense of Gambian people and nation is some feat never witnessed in the history of our nation. Some of us remembered the promises made by Lt Yahya Jammeh to the Gambian people when he illegally overthrew a democratically elected government of Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, and one can only wonder which of the promises were fulfilled. His promise of transparency and accountability flew out through the State House windows the moment the Taiwanese government approved a 30 million Dollar loan to the government. His promise of good governance barely lasted a week when he and his band of killers gathered together Mandinka, Wollof and Fulani military officials and killed them in cold blood. What is the moral justification of the anti Barrow, anti New Gambia stance? except petty bigotry and tribal jealousy.
The PPP regime of Sir Dawda could have done better but atleast our people were not subjugated to the barbarity witnessed during the 22 years of Jammeh’s misrule.The disappearances without trace, the prevalence of torture chambers, the countless un-marked burial sites and the plunder of our meager resources.
Calling oneself professor doesn’t mean one is learned. Fools study but can never be learned.
Only a FOOL would see him/herself above the achievements of others. Those who say they never SCAVENGE for information, those who learn from nowhere, those who study from nowhere, those who are stuck in their shallow ideas.
Oh, the PPP could have done better! LOL. What a plausible statement from somebody who couldn’t mention a single achievement of a failed dysfunctional administration that wastefully stayed in power for 31 years without giving anything in return except CORRUPTION, SELF-AGGRANDIZEMENT, TRIBALISM, NEPOTISM and an agonizing period of waste of our resources.
The Barrow administration is CORRUPT and USELESS, which is agitating the people’s anger at home. It’s just UNFIT to manage the affairs of our country. Price hikes, energy/water outages/shortages, deportation of our fellow countrywomen/men, strikes at idiotic policies, infinite period without farmers’ money, etc,etc…………………..That’s the REALITY!
The Gambia attained its independence from the British with little over half a million inhabitants of which only a small amount could read or write. The infrastructure of the country like good roads, hospitals, schools were predominantly in the cities and big towns. Those living in villages had to walk for miles to the nearest school or hospital. Our only exportable material was peanuts, grown by subsistence farmers. The country was basically relying on hand outs from foreign powers whose only interest was to exploit us and make us vassals to their interests. With these back drops our country wasn’t expected to succeed on its own. Through the able leadership of Sir Dawda, our country after independence became a beacon of hope for freedom fighters and democrats all over Africa. Our country became the first in Africa to host the human right council. With our meager resources, our people lived in peace and dignity till the mishap of 1981. Who can accredited with the safe steering of our affairs in the early days of our independence? or the nitty-gritty of our independence struggle to a peaceful conclusion.
On quote from the piece above ” Only a fool would see him/herself above the achievements of others” So who is the fool here to claim that the PPP government stayed in power for 31 years without giving anything in return? I don’t have to learn from anywhere nor study from anywhere to knot you fool in your twisted and uninformed hubris. Fools study but never learned and this faked ass fool of a professor is not a learned fellow.
Well, I’m back in The Gambia after 1 year and my everyday essentials has increased in price by a minimum of 100%,
People are crying for a pay rise, but it seems/looks like, only The Bank of Gambia staff are the only
Company/workers to receive inflation proof salaries and financial packages. I wonder who’s printing that money for The Bank of Gambia?(UK? EU?)
Yesterday The Gambia was celebrating Commonwealth day, so The Gambia, is now officially governed by the head of state of the Commonwealth!
Still better to be governed by commonwealth standards than by the murderous Jammeh and his rebel thugs from Cassamance. Diverting all our resources to his Kanilai family enterprise.
Down with dictator Jammeh and their supporters, for keeping Gambians in perpetual fear of their lives and limb. Their is sickness in people who yearn for Jammeh. They cannot understand that minimum freedom of free expression as we have now, is necessary for human development.
So, isn’t President Barrow and his government capable of setting an standards charter, for the country he was elected in? Or do you believe that the commonwealth deal, was the best deal on the table for The Gambia?
Babu, you must understand that I am neither beating up on you or attempting to water down your life experience or credentials nor I am attempting to tout my credentials either.
There’s the saying that you can only take the horse to water but you can’t make it drink. So this is an attempt to gently nudge you into sobriety for clearly you act delusional many a time.
I wish to point out here that some of The Gambia’s worst enemies are our very selves as Gambians for we can’t seem to agree on anything, commit to a common vision or act selflessly in seeking the common good. These and other phenomena have penetrated Gambian society to the extent that a canker has sunken so deep into the Gambian mindset and fabric of society that it has become what’s akin to a terminal case. Frankly Babu, the real leader and government for The Gambia has not yet emerged. Yes, we can all give hope a chance and pray all we want but the effort that’s required to resuscitate The Gambia doesn’t yet exist on the ground.
Wasn’t there under the PPP or APRC and now all hinge on HOPE!
I have have done a good amount of research and reflection to conclude that the advent of Yaya Jammeh and the APRC is in no small measure the making of the inept and thieving PPP government. And thanks to the PPP, all Gambians are paying and will continue to pay the price for a while.
Babu, do you honestly believe that Yaya Jammeh and the APRC couldn’t have done any better to move The Gambia forward? Yes, one can build an 24000 Square Ft airport in place of the chicken coop that we had under the PPP. And yes, we can tout a 66 mile coastal road and a single stretch of all weather trunk road after 25 years of independence. However, all of this was achieved thanks to poorly spent loan funds that will be paid out of our noses. Hospitals? The cheapest part of constructing a hospital building, you may know, is putting up the structure. The most expensive part comes when you have to bring in services, technology and related equipment.
Yes these structures didn’t exist under the PPP but then what’s the point in putting up a structure in the clear knowledge that you couldn’t make it partially functional or that you may have to borrow additional funds to make it part functional and maintain the facility?
Now Babu, in our Gambia under the PPP and APRC, the mantra was, borrow loan funds at all cost, invest a mere thirty percent, loot sixty percent and the rest goes into the sink hole. So Babu, this phenomenon has been going on since the colonialists, for want of a better word, left and our own Gambian brothers and sisters came in their true colors to loot our national and local government budgets.
Under the APRC, a lone general that has never seen the inner workings of a college classroom, masqueraded as a SAMAYO in Kombo Serrekunda Nding would, on the strength of a hand written note, draw a Million Dollars from our coffers? Doesn’t that trigger alarm bells in your head? That’s not to say that a lone, half baked Accountant General under the PPP didn’t plunder our resources at will too.
So Babu, in a nutshell, I want you to wake up to the smell of the roses, get out of your glee dance before you fall off of the cliff. Oh and by the way, employ your time wisely, shun insults, mud slinging and carry your thinking cap with you so you may leave a legacy for your kids. Clearly what you believe may leave you a legacy in the short term would taint you forever. But, as always, YOU DON’T HAVE TO CARE!
You can as well sit in your neck of the woods and go raving, ranting and stoking your ego while valuable time drifts by you like is the case with the hapless, anti Ahmadi clerics in The Gambia. A reminder that I’m a thick skinned optimist.
Back to the Gambian doctors, I’d say that dialogue is certainly a good recourse but blackmail must never be a trump card. So I stand steadfast with the Minister albeit her questionable record to call out some of what is absolutely wrong with service delivery in The Gambia where there’s little respect accorded to clients that, aside from making tough choices on disposable incomes, bring their hard earned monies in search of mostly life saving interventions. Remember the late Sailou Jallow, JIbbi Jallow GAM GAS’ son? The able bodied young fellow walked into the hospital for a simple surgery that would amount to a day surgery anywhere in the modern world but ended up dead. Only in our Gambia where Nigerian interns are also allowed to practice their craft ostensibly in the name of bilateral cooperation!
Look at the instructors at the EFSTH/RVH and you’ll have a good idea as to the quality of training offered to young students of Medicine. What teaching hospital I’d ask? Nosocomial infections, grime on walls, dirt on floors and poor sanitation? We can do better.
I wouldn’t be surprised if doctor Mbowe, Yaya Jammeh’s quack, is part of the rabble rousing. The same quack is still free to practice quackery in The Gambia. Mind boggling!
Andrew Pjalo,
I think the case of the irresponsible remarks by the Health Minister is over. She has retracted and apologized (maybe reluctantly), but that’s the best service she could render to our health sector; personnel and the sick.
It’s not important what Babu or Andrew remark on line which many our country people won’t read. What matters is the reality back home. We want actions and credible policies, not witch-hunting, vilifications and all the finger-pointing at our hard-working people, especially the medical personnel.
When we disqualify our medical personnel, which politician is qualified to administer our affairs?
The processes that you suggested to screen our doctors would best fit our UNQUALIFIED politicians. How much do you know about Barrow before he came into politics? And Ousainou Darbo? And Omar Jallow( the notorious womanizer)? And Hamat Bah?……………………….
In Dutch standards these people would NEVER have attempted to seek political office. But The Gambian standards are the Gambian standards, let’s all conform by biting the BITTER cake!
Babu, you’ll note that I mentioned the Minister’s questionable record as a Permanent Secretary and I must also add that it’s difficult to find an untainted person in the higher levels of public service in The Gambia. It’s either that they’re complicit in malfeasance or that they encourage junior personnel to do the bidding for them.
To your point on biting the bitter cake/pill, this is exactly the reason that you must employ the valuable perspectives gained in the Netherlands and Europe to mold your thinking and by the same token shed the Yaya Jammeh/APRC sycophancy for good. There’s no winning in that dispensation. Do I sense a need for a Jola hegemony here? Maybe not. I have Solis on my maternal grandmother’s side of the family and I’m quite clear on their origins.
So Babu, count on your level of refinement, fairness and do as the health minister did by biting the bitter pill too. Stop going to bat for Yaya Jammeh because I truly believe that you are above that level albeit that I’ve never met you in person.
In The Gambia as we speak, there’s still an urgent need to rally the troops for meaningful change.
And yes, I’m aware that the online readership is in the minority but that shouldn’t stop anyone from sharing their opinion and/or dissent as you’re wont to do Babu.
The minister apologized but that didn’t change the substance of her previous message. Now that’s what guts are all about Babu.
It’s not too late for you to offer apologies and further steer clear of the worthless Yaya Jammeh propaganda machinery.
Dr Isatou Sarr, it’s refreshing to learn that 30 CME’s are required to maintain licensure. The question is that the requirement will be enforced to the letter and that catching up on the credits at the end of the recertification cycle or attempting to game the process wouldn’t be allowed.
There must also be built in requirements that specify the duration of a cycle and that where credits aren’t met, the licensure automatically lapses and set requirements be met for re-licensure. I’ve been involved in overseeing licensure and recertification in the US and I put great emphasis on fine tuning the process to make it workable. The issue however, is that self assessment in most of West Africa generally doesn’t work as desired.
Notwithstanding possible challenges in its implementation, I’d agree that the recertification process is a good start.