One of the cracks in the Gambia’s healthcare system is the apparent inability of the country’s only orthopaedics hospital to cope with the patient numbers, despite the seemingly never-ending public outcry.
As need for bone surgeries in The Gambia continues to mount due to various factors such as reckless driving and the country’s dangerous roads leading to numerous road accidents, Ndemban Clinic in the coastal town of Bakau is still unable to keep up with the rate of patients that present bone fractures and dislocations there on daily and weekly basis.
At the time of writing this story, relatives of some of the patients, who were brought to the clinic since last week, were brooding over the fate of their relatives.
“It is quite exhausting,” one patient escort Kaddy Fatty told JollofNews. “We’ve been here for four days now and our mother is yet to undergo surgery.”
The JollofNews reporter came across several cases of similar nature as the wards were filled with patients with broken legs and other ligament injuries apparently in dire need of vital surgery.
“I’ve been here for five days now but thankfully today, we got an assurance that my mother would be attended to,” a distressed escort, who preferred not to be named for fear of a backlash, explained to this medium.
JollofNews has meanwhile gathered that apart from Dr. Haddyjatou Joof, The Gambia currently has only one bone specialist.
The chief medical director of the Gambia’s main referral hospital Dr. Mustapha Bittaye could not be reached for comment.
