German Ambassador At EFSTH
By Buba Gagigo
The German Ambassador to The Gambia, Klaus Botzet has on Wednesday visited the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH) to assess the progress of a micro-project funded by the German Embassy. The initiative introduced a bedside ultrasound machine to the hospital, a cutting-edge tool designed to enhance patient care by allowing real-time imaging at the patient’s bedside.
These portable devices, commonly known as Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) machines, are transforming medical diagnostics by eliminating the need to move patients to radiology suites for critical imaging.
Dr. Sara Loetz, Head of the Pediatric Emergency Unit at EFSTH, praised the machine’s impact, describing it as a game-changer in improving workflows and diagnostics at the hospital, which is The Gambia’s largest healthcare facility.”We are receiving the German ambassador who is coming to visit us to see the success of funding of a micro project. They gave us some money to buy a bedside ultrasound machine, which is used commonly in antenatal care. So you can see this machine is much smaller. It’s basically just a probe. It has two sides, and we are using it with a normal tablet. You can even connect it to your mobile phone if you downloaded the program. This machine together with the tablet allows us to look into tissue, to look inside the body of our patients on the ward, because many of them are very sick, so it’s very tricky to bring them to the ultrasound machine. So, with this, ultrasound can come to the patient,” she explained.
Dr Alieu Barry, A doctor at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the positive changes the machine has brought to patient care.”We’re very grateful. When you’re practicing resource poor nations, you know the need for every drop of money you get, it goes a long way in helping children who have no hope. This has really changed everything. This morning, we were arguing whether it was a meningitis or whether it was a bleed. Once we came down, it was a bleed. So it answers your question without wasting time. If we didn’t have this, we would have gone to the ultrasound room to queue up, and maybe the decision will be taken next tomorrow, and it is the corps that would go for the test. Answering questions immediately just makes us not waste our time and not waste the time of people, and save life. So, we’re very grateful,” he said.
Acting Head of the Pediatric Unit, Dr. Ifeoma Anochie, highlighted the machine’s significant contribution to better treatment outcomes, underlining its importance in the hospital’s mission to provide quality healthcare.”I want to attest to the very important use of it. Being a nephrologist, you can’t do without an ultrasound. And I was quite thrilled when I came here and found out that we could do an ultrasound in the emergency room, and today, again, we did one on a child who had a pneumothorax, quite ill, and we needed to just make sure it enables you to do a prompt diagnosis. Instead of waiting to get to the radiologist and so on, you could make a diagnosis. And so for us in nephrology, we find it very useful in examining the kidney. It’s a very important spot on, as you see a patient who wants to examine the kidney, get an ultrasound to know what exactly is happening there. On behalf of the department, I want to say, thank you so much for making this available to us,” she said.
Ambassador Botzet expressed his satisfaction with the project’s success, underscoring the machine’s critical role in strengthening the hospital’s capacity to deliver immediate and effective care. The Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital now benefits from a modern diagnostic tool that aligns with international best practices. Widely used in emergency rooms, intensive care units, ambulances, and trauma bays, bedside ultrasound machines have become indispensable in contemporary medical care.