By: Kemo Kanyi
President Adama Barrow has said The Gambia faces a surging number of sick people every year, which normally leads to shortage of medicines in the public hospitals as it’s difficult to determine who would probably fall sick within the period concerned.
Addressing a gathering at Bantanding Wollof village on Monday during the ‘Meet The People Tour’, the President stated that many people complain about unavailability of medicines in public hospitals whenever they visit those hospitals. He said it is very difficult and expensive to run a health system, adding that everything about hospital including nurses, doctors and medicines all attract costs.
‘’Every year, we propose a budget for the health sector. If we propose that budget for the health sector, can we determine how many people will probably fall sick during that period? When the medicines came, there will be too many sick people and the available medicines cannot serve all of those that need the medicines. Those that fall sick when they visit our public hospitals will either pay D25 or D50. What can a D50 benefit today?“ the president asked.
President Barrow stated that the materials that the nurses will use to attend to patients are far higher than a D50 value. He added that the country is far ahead of so many countries in relation to health service provision.
‘’What we are offering in The Gambia, even in some developed countries like England does not offer such. Many people leave their countries to seek medical attentions in our public hospitals, especially the border communities. This is an indication that The Gambia is ahead of so many countries,’’ Barrow told his audience.
The President added that the public hospitals are far cheaper in comparison with the private health care centres.
‘’If you want to see a private doctor, some will pay up to D2,000.00 and you will later pay for all your medical bills in addition to what’s paid to see the doctor but in our public hospitals, only D50 is charged for all the services.’’
He stated that his government is working on an alternative to the issue of medicine shortage in the public hospitals by introducing the Health Insurance Scheme in order to finance the availability of medicines in hospitals through the funds generated from registrations in the scheme.