West African College of Surgeons calls on EFSTH CMD

The delegation is in Banjul to re-accredit the training programme at the Department of General Surgery at the hospital. The sub-regional college is responsible in ensuring that quality education is guaranteed in the area of general surgery and its related areas in all the countries within West Africa.

Speaking at the ceremony, Professor Ousman Nyan, Chief Medical Director at the Edward Francs Small Teaching Hospital, expressed delight in receiving the delegation from the college, further acknowledging the tremendous work of the founding fathers of the college to present members.

CMD Nyan paid glowing tribute to the ministers, who signed for the Post-graduate Medical Colleges, recalling that a Gambian minister was the first on the list at the time and this was in 1973.

“From then, there has been involvement, but somewhere along the line it drifted away in terms of active participation. But here we are back again and we hope this time, it will be definitely more sustained at a higher level. That is possible through the commitment of government.”

Professor Nyan also informed the visiting delegation about the supportive nature of the board at the hospital. “Within the hospital as CMD, I was fortunate to have a board that is very supportive.”

He thus extends special commendation to all their stakeholders whom he said, very helpful and supportive to the teaching hospital.

Speaking to journalists shortly after their courtesy call on CMD Nyan, Professor King David Yawe, past president and life-member of the council, who led the delegation to Banjul, explained that they were here in 2019, where they granted the hospital full accreditation status to conduct trainings of general surgeons for two years.

“Two years has elapsed, so we are here to review the facility both the physical and training facilities and re-accredit the institution for training of specialists, who will be certified in various ways outside The Gambia and then they will be able to practice anywhere in the world.”

Professor Yawe noted that the training of specialist to become a consultant in surgery takes many years, noting that these phases include, the primary phase, membership phase and accreditation for the final fellowship programme.

The hospital, added, has gotten full accreditation for membership trainings, which he said, normally last for five years.

He revealed that the second assignment is an intermediary one, which he added, is to train doctors who are into surgery in basic surgical skills.

Also speaking, Dr. Lamin Jaiteh, a consultant in general surgery, who is also the deputy head of Department of Surgery at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, explained that the West African College of Surgeons, is the body that is responsible when it comes to surgeons in West Africa.

The college, he added, is responsible in ensuring that quality education is guaranteed in all the countries within West Africa.

“Normally, they embarked on regular accreditation exercises in that they visit teaching hospitals within the sub-region and they try and make sure that the standards are kept in terms of trainings. So for us n The Gambia this is actually, their third visit they have been embarking on; their last visit was in 2019 and when they came in to see how are our facilities and the capacity for us to train surgeons.”

Dr. Jaiteh said the country was fortunate during their last visit to be able to get accreditation, saying this accreditation has to be regularly updated.

“So this current visit is actually to come back and see the progress we’ve made since the last accreditation and make recommendations on how to improve on our subsequent programmes.”

Other speakers include, Professor M. Ohene Yeboah, leader of KBTH AccraGhana, and Professor Yankuba Kassama, coordinator Post Graduate Medical Training Programme.