Report on the medical and health services / The Gambia.

  • Gambia. Medical Department.
Date:
[1954]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the medical and health services / The Gambia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/30 (page 8)
    B. MEDICAL UNITS. (a) Victoria Hospital, Bathurst. During the year there were 3,455 admissions to the Hospital, which is a fall in admissions of 121 as compared with 1953. However, the total days stay in Hospital of all patients was 51,127 days as compared with 46,775 days in 1953, which represents a rise of 9.3% in the total effective work done. It is expected that in 1955, with the bringing into use of all the new Hospital buildings that there will be a further increase for throughout the year 1954, the hospital worked at 94% of capacity, and there were many occasions when the less seriously ill had to be turned away because of lack of space, in which to accommodate them. (b) Bansang Hospital. Admissions during the year showed an increase of 108 over the figure for 1953, at 1,232 admissions during 1954. Total days spent in hospital by all patients increased from 13,411 for 1953 to 18,093 for 1954, which represents a rise of 34.9%. On the average, during the year the hospital worked to 76% of maximum capacity, with several periods when a greater number of beds could quite readily have been filled. 318 major operations were performed during the year and 56 minor operations, which compares with 243 major operations and 51 minor ones during 1953. It is of interest to note that the figures for operations during 1954 indicate that at least one operation was done on the average each day throughout the year, and that at Bansang Hospital at any one time there is only one doctor who has the whole supervision of the hospital, and all minor medical units in MacCarthy Island and Upper River divisions, in his charge as well. (c) Minor Medical Units. There is nothing unusual to report about the Minor Medical Units during the year 1954. The organisation of the units remained as at the end of 1953, namely:— 6 Government Health Centres. 15 Dispensaries, all in District Authority Buildings, except at Yundum Airport. 23 Sub-Dispensaries, all in District Authority Buildings and visited once or twice weekly by the Government Dresser/Dispenser from the nearest Dispensary. The Anglican Mission continued to maintain a Dispensary with a resident European Pharmacist at Kumbul who visited sub-dispensaries at Kristi- kunda and Passemassi, and also toured with a mobile dispensary during the dry season. It appears probable that during 1955 the Mission will succeed in placing on duty in Upper River Division a Male State Registered Nurse in addition to the Pharmacist. C. LABORATORY SERVICES. Staff and accommodation must still be considered inadequate in the clinical laboratory at the Victoria Hospital. The increasing scope of laboratory techniques and the increasing dependence (rightly) of doctors on laboratory tests to confirm and check clinical diagnoses makes it absolutely essential, if proper treatment is to be given, that laboratory facilities be overhauled and strengthened at the hospital. Increasingly, the need for a fully qualified pathologist becomes apparent, and it is hoped that in the near future such an appointment will be included on the Depart¬ ment’s establishment. Although the cost of such an appointment may well be high, it could well lead to increased economy in the use of drugs, and a shorter stay of patients in the hospital, for without the full-scale use of a laboratory to assist ip diagnosis, treatment cannot be sometimes other than empirical.