Surgery at EFSTH ( Old Pictures)
By Buba Gagigo
Surgical operations at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH), Gambia’s largest medical facility, have been suspended for three days due to a water shortage that has severely impacted the hospital.
A source at the hospital shared their frustration with Kerr Fatou, explaining the dire situation:“Please, there’s something very wrong at Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital right now. There has been no running water at the hospital’s main theatre since Monday, 14th October 2024. It is against this backdrop, patients had their operations cancelled until Allah knows when. This may sound weird, but that’s the situation. When I was informed by the doctor about this on Monday, I asked him when is the next possible date for the operation, but he just promised that we’ll be called as he doesn’t know when the issue will be resolved.
“Fast forward this morning, after waiting for over 48hrs without hearing from the doctor, I decided to reach out, but he again informed me that the problem isn’t still resolved. Now we’re in a state of confusion because you can imagine the fear of having an ageing relative being in pain for that long and still hopeless about any possible remedy, thanks to our dysfunctional healthcare system,” a source at the hospital told Kerr Fatou.
Sabel Ensa Jarju, Deputy Public Relations Officer at EFSTH, attributed the problem to NAWEC, the national utility provider, explaining the hospital’s reliance on their water supply:
“The constraints that we are facing are coming directly from NAWEC. We normally get our water supply from mile 2 directly to Banjul, so the reserve tank that normally supplies the other side of Banjul around Albion is no longer working. So, meaning we get our water supply from NAWEC. If the water supply to us is low, then we cannot have enough water needed for the hospital. Now the technicians are doing all their best to make sure that we have water. But the issue is not from the hospital but directly from NAWEC,” Sabel Ensa Jarju, Deputy PRO at EFSTH said.
He further mentioned that the hospital is currently using water pumped by the Fire Service to resume surgical operations.
Attempts to reach NAWEC for comment were unsuccessful at the time of this report.