Dr. Ahmadou Lamin Samateh made this call on Saturday as he paid a visit to the first-phase of ongoing works at the Emergency Treatment Center in Farato.
Accompanied by senior staff of his Ministry, WHO and other development partners, the three-day visit was basically to assess the level of development taking shape at various health facilities in the country.
The first phase of this Emergency Treatment Center in Farato has a 104-bed capacity; however, 20 of those beds are high-end – that’s high-level intensive care units.
Speaking to journalists shortly after touring different units under construction, Dr. Ahmadou Lamin Samateh shared his impression with the journalists, acknowledging that this New Teaching Hospital in Farato when completed will have 1,500 bed capacity.
"As you remember, a few years ago, His Excellency, President Adama Barrow laid the foundation stones for this building."
The project, he said, is near completion now, and they are on the ground to inspect the level of construction work and how close they are to completion.
"Now, we've seen a good lot of the buildings, the structures are completed, and we are highly impressed with the quality of work. This facility, as you know, is the first phase and has 104 beds, 20 of those beds are high-end, that means high-level intensive care units."
Minister Samateh described the ongoing development taking shape at the site as remarkable, adding that in addition to that, the facility has the general wards of about 84 beds.
"It has the new National Blood Transfusion Center, the new Conference center, Training and Conference Center for the Ministry of Health. It will also house the new National Public Health Laboratory, and the National Imaging and Diagnostic Center, which is going to have new CT scanners, MRI equipment, fluoroscopy equipment, mammographies, and so on and so forth."
To that end, he revealed that those are part of the infrastructural development being carried under President Adama Barrow and his government in collaboration with their very good partners.
In this light, Minister Samateh commended partners such as World Bank and WHO, for both their financial and technical support.
"The quality of work is good. And as we build new Gambia, the work should be of high standard. So, it will last 50, 100 years, 150, 200 years."
Also speaking, Nathan Bakyaita, country representative of the World Health Organisation, expressed his impression with the infrastructure investment that is being undertaken at the site.
"But what has made me extremely happy here is that it's an integrated plan that looks at both the curative side and the health security. The people who planned this complex looked at all these different things, because you have National Blood Transfusion Service, a Public Health, National Public Health Laboratory, which will cater for the health security and so on; a Teaching Hospital, ICU. So, if we have an emergency, we have infectious diseases, we know where to manage them. And what is interesting is that the work is very good and State-of-The-Art, and they have thought through. But, also what is good to know is that it won't be finished and then we wait for the equipment."
The equipment, he added, are already here, while looking forward to the time it will be inaugurated so that Gambians can have services given within their own country.
"So once again, Honorable Minister and fellow Gambians, it's an honor to be here and we look forward to utilizing these services for many years to come."
Bakyaita reminded that WHO is a member state organisation and they are a secretariat, pointing out that it's always a privilege for them to stand alongside their government counterparts to support in the kind of work.
The WHO country rep noted that at WHO, they mostly measure in terms of technical support, saying when plans like this come, as you've heard, there are different partners who are funding different things, but the ministry always comes to them to ask for some of the technical specifications to ensure standards.
"So, going through the Emergency Treatment Center and other parts of the infrastructure here, we could see that they had thought through the details with the technical specifications. So, we feel really good"
