By Kebba Secka / Makutu Manneh
The Kanifing General Hospital in collaboration with Vision Development Foundation (VDF) on Tuesday 25th September 2019 commenced a two-day Free Surgical Camp for one hundred patients.
This is the second of its kind to be held at the Hospital with the first one held in 2017, which targeted one hundred patients. The activity which is sponsored by VDF’s Executive Modou Turo Darbo, carried out surgery on selected patients suffering from different ailments.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Chief Executive Officer of the Kanifing General Hospital Kebba Manneh, thanked the foundation’s Chief Momodou Turo Darbo for what he described as his timely intervention to save life; that the process of the recruitment in this year’s surgery is selective, but his Ministry has plans to make it inclusive for all categories of patients from all hospitals.
Dr. Mustapha Bittaye, the acting Director of Health on behalf of the Ministry, praised the team of surgeons who conducted the operations between Wednesday and Thursday 26th.
“This surgery camp will enable transfer of skills to local experts and to promote and ensure maximum utilization of resources unavailable in the country,’’ he said; that as a Ministry, they look forward to decentralize such assistance to all regions across the country and called on more philanthropists to invest in the Health sector. “As a Ministry, we are pursuing a strategy to provide the needed emergency surgery wherever it is needed,” said Bittaye; that their priority is to ensure that all emergencies are dealt with at all points of care. He said as a country, everything would be done to try to diagnose the root causes and symptoms in order to eliminate the problem through successful treatment.
According to Dr Manneh, the 2017 surgical camp with the VDF targeted one hundred patients but it was later found out that only eighty-five patients were fit for these successful operations. “Those eighty-five were successfully operated,” he said; that his team is anticipating another successful operation this year and urges all and sundry to contribute their quota to the development of the health sector.
“We encourage Momodou Turo Darbo and his team to continue what they are doing for Gambians,” he said.
Saikou Fofana, the Director and Public Relations Officer of the VDF declared their Foundation’s readiness to render support to all humans in the country. He recollected a successful collaboration between their Foundation and KGH that yielded benefits.
