PATG is a professional body committed to advancing practices and improving child health in The Gambia. Its mission is to provide safe, reliable and efficient health care for children through education, research advocacy and evidence-practices.
This year’s event was held under the theme ‘Optimizing Maternal and Newborn Care in The Gambia’ with a sub-theme ‘Promoting Safe Motherhood, Reducing Childhood Mortality.’
Speaking at the event, Dr. Mustapha Bittaye, Chief Medical Director at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, disclosed that as the hospital responsible for the training of Pediatric doctors, they’re happy to be integral in this association.
Dr. Bittaye noted that the hospital will work with the association to provide the necessary training and together they can provide the optimal training.
“We hope that we can work together in developing protocols or guidelines for treatment. The hospital hopes to explore your potential to develop our research culture in the hospital. You are all invited to collaborate with the hospital in the areas of research.”
He reminded that the Pediatric unit will not be left behind even though it may be the last in the renovation process, pointing out that The Gambia is in a unique situation where you have both a young association and a young postgraduate training program.
While describing the theme as quite apt, Dr Bittaye maintained that the gains made in Obstetrics are still not adequate.
The health of the mother and the child are significantly linked. The death in the neonatal level needs to be impacted by interventions during pregnancy. This might be link to reduce the perinatal death. The hospital stands ready to support the association in asking the right questions and piloting the right answers.
For his part, Professor Gibriel Ogun, Provost School of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, University of The Gambia, made reference to the Acute Kidney Injury in the country linked to contaminated cough syrup, which claimed the lives of close to 85 children, noting that one of the interventions that took place at the time was because they had neurologists, who noticed this quickly.
This effort, he added, reduced the mortality they had at hand, reminding that as the frontier of pediatric expanse, they discovered the capacity that they have to protect the population will continue to improve.
Thus, he called on the association to ensure that they provide a programme that expands pediatric care beyond just the Greater Banjul Area and West Coast Region to other parts of the country.
Professor Haggai Njoku, senior head internal Medicines Department, while highlighting some of the gains made in child care in the country, acknowledged some of the country’s achievement in maternal and child health.
To that end, he stressed the need for continuous effort.
So far accreditation had procured in surgery, pediatrics internal medicine, family medicine and host of others, saying very soon they will secure accreditation in laboratory medicine.
Thus, he encouraged member to sustain those areas and let don’t now allow it to left un-attended.
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