The Foundation takes a mobile medical caravan to villages that do not have, are far from or lack sufficient services of a health centre, in order to provide free medical consultation and medicines to patients.
The medical caravan includes one or two ambulances, several transportation vehicles for the volunteers, a mobile laboratory service, tents for the volunteers to camp in, a mobile generator to provide electricity for mobile clinic and laboratory, and drugs to be dispensed to the patients. The trips take place during the weekend and on average 550 – 600 patients are seen per trip.
To date, the Foundation’s mobile clinic work has treated more than 37000 patients within a total of 78 trips that have been conducted since October 2004 to villages mainly within the North Bank River, Central River Region, West coast Region and Lower Region of the Country.
The clinic runs during weekend days, from Saturday morning to late afternoon (on one-day trips) and from Saturday morning to Sunday early afternoon (on two-day trips). The team comprises of volunteers including 5 to 7 qualified doctors, 3 to 4 nurses, 2 records officers, 4 pharmacists, 2 lab technicians, 3 or 4 drivers, an Oustass or Imam, 2 caterers and two or more SAJCF officials making between 25 to 27 people taking part in the trip. The scout nurse departs for the intended village on the Friday before the clinic operations start and the other members of team depart on the Saturday morning when the clinic operations commence.
Although a caterer is employed to provide refreshments and food to the team during the period of the trips, the Foundation also enlists the assistance of local cooks to help organize the meals during the trip. The Foundation also involves the local community health nurses and other villager to help facilitate the smooth running of the mobile clinic. All participants are encouraged to socialize with the villagers and experience village life; in order to appreciate the socio-economic conditions in the rural areas of the country.
We treat all patients seen to the best of our ability and with the resources that we have in the field. Patients who are critically ill are evacuated by ambulance to the nearest health centre or hospital and those who need further hospital treatment are referred accordingly. The records of all patients seen including their diagnoses and treatment details are well documented, and are refered to during follow-up visits to the respective villages.
A session on health education is organised on the first and last day of every trip; where the community is educated on the predominant ailments in their area and on common disease preventable measures they can take. The local village nurses also receive free training on ‘Safety and Basic Hygiene’. All participants taking part in this work get the opportunity to gain first hand experience of coming across and treating medical conditions they may have not come across before hand.
SAJCF provides free medication to patients seen during the medical caravan trips. Download the Free Medication list for further details about the drugs provided.
The Foundation has donated medical equipment and drugs to the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (ESFTH), the main hospital in the capital of The Gambia, Banjul in the past, and has supported needy patients by paying for their hospital care locally and abroad.
