Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH) is a

tertiary referral hospital A tertiary referral hospital (also called a tertiary hospital, tertiary referral center, tertiary care center, or tertiary center) is a hospital that provides tertiary care, which is a level of health care obtained from specialists in a large ho ...

in Banjul, the capital city of

The Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...

. It is the largest hospital in the country, originally founded by British colonialists in 1853. Until 2013, it was known as the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital (RVTH).

History

Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH) was founded in 1853 by the British colonial government of what was then the

Gambia Colony and Protectorate The Gambia Colony and Protectorate was the British colonial administration of the Gambia from 1821 to 1965, part of the British Empire in the New Imperialism era. The colony was the immediate area surrounding Bathurst (now Banjul), and the pr ...

. The

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of ...

(WHO) donated two million dalasis-worth of equipment for maternal and childcare in 2014. In 2019, the Nurses' Association at the hospital made a public statement lamenting poor working conditions and low salary. In particular, they named the lack of basic items such as proper bins to dispose of waste and fridges to keep medications and other items.

Departments

Paediatrics

The

paediatric Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

department has 100 beds and admits around 3000 patients annually. It primarily admits patients with severe malaria, acute respiratory infection, malnutrition, septicaemia, and gastroenteritis.

Maternity

Maternity care in The Gambia is free and is provided by the government. Evidence suggests that more than half of caesarean sections in The Gambia are carried out at EFSTH.

Blood

There is a

blood bank A blood bank is a center where blood gathered as a result of blood donation is stored and preserved for later use in blood transfusion. The term "blood bank" typically refers to a department of a hospital usually within a Clinical Pathology laborat ...

at EFSTH, but blood is often in short supply and patients' relatives are often required to donate their own blood. This can result in delays to emergency

blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used whole blood, but mo ...

services.

Teaching

EFSTH became a teaching hospital during the 1990s, in order to tackle the reliance on foreign doctors. The school is operated in conjunction with the

University of the Gambia The University of the Gambia (UTG) is an institution of higher education located in Sere Kunda, the largest city in the Gambia. History The campus was founded in 1998 in Kotu-Kanifing, a suburb of Sere Kunda. It was not until March 1999 that t ...

. Its first intake was in 1999 and it had taught 76 doctors by the end of 2011. It offers a six-year undergraduate MBBS course.

References

{{Coord, 13, 27, 27, N, 16, 34, 39, W, type:landmark_region:GM-B, display=title Hospital buildings completed in 1853 Buildings and structures in Banjul Teaching hospitals Hospitals in the Gambia