Our clinic in Fajara has four full time consultant posts. The current post-holders are:

• Dr Karen Forrest FRCP (London) FWACP (Internal Medicine), Head of Clinical Services Gastroenterologist and General Internal Medicine
• Dr Baderinwa Abatan FWACP (Paediatrics), Paediatrician
• Dr Olabisi Deji-Dada FNPMCN (Family Medicine), Staff Physician Family Medicine
• Dr Behzad Nadjm FRCP (London), Infectious Diseases and General Internal Medicine (job-share)

Our clinic in Keneba has one full-time consultant:

• Dr Bubacarr Susso DES (Paediatrics), Head of Clinical Services Keneba, Paediatrician

We have over 100 staff working in the Clinical Services Department, including 10 other doctors. We also offer internal medicine and paediatric training to residents from Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH).

Our aim is to provide the highest quality of patient care possible with the resources available to us. We have had an active interest in quality improvement and patient safety. The department has weekly professional development meetings aimed at ensuring all staff are up to date in their practice. We have developed a suite of locally written clinical guidelines to ensure that we standardise care across the department. 

Consultants are available on a 24/7 basis to answer questions raised by other staff in the team or to come to the bedside when needed. This is made possible by research clinicians who contribute to on-call rotas from elsewhere in the Unit.

Staff in the department have undergone training in the following areas:

• Basic and advanced life support
• Customer care
• Doctors as educators
• Point of care ultrasound (POCUS)
• Quality improvement and patient safety

Training healthcare workers

Over the last two years, the department has been accredited by the West African College of Physicians to provide training in support of the postgraduate training programmes at EFSTH in internal medicine and family medicine. Residents rotate to the clinic for periods of three months and work as part of our team under the supervision of the consultants.

We have a long history of providing training placements for the various nursing schools in The Gambia, including BSc nursing students from the University of The Gambia and the American International University of West Africa, registered nurse students from the Gambia College Nursing School, enrolled nurse students from the Bansang Nursing School and several foundation nursing programmes.

We also take medical students from the University of The Gambia and overseas universities for medical electives. We particularly like to welcome Gambian students who are training overseas.