By Nelson Manneh
A team of sixteen health personnel including nurses and doctors have completed a training of trainers programme on Disaster and Pre-hospital Emergency Medicines in the Turkish city of Izmir.
The objective of the training, according to the health authorities, was to equip Gambian medical professionals with knowledge to conduct step – down training for health workers and members of the security on disaster and pre-hospital emergency medicine, as well as train village health workers on basic life support.
The Turkey trainees are expected to conduct all future training for pre-hospital management including the paramedics for the community ambulance services.
“As part of the community ambulance service delivery, eleven ambulance stations will be built in the 11 areas most prone to road traffic accidents in the country. This will significantly reduce the reaction time to accidents,” said Mr. Ousman Ceesay, Program Manager Primary Health Care at the Ministry of Health.
Ceesay, who led the Gambian cohort to Turkey, said the team visited the state hospital, emergency call centre and the disaster training centre in Turkey.
Readers could recall that President Adama Barrow on Monday 13th September 2021, inspected and handed over twenty (20) new ambulances to the Minister of Health, Dr. Amadou Lamin Samateh.
The 20 ambulances were part of the 80 ambulances procured by the government in 2021 to strengthen the country’s health system. Government officials said they are expecting another 25 in two weeks’ time and all the 80 ambulances will be in the country by November 2021.
