The health of children in low-income countries is piteous, but with collaboration and partnership with high-income countries, the differences and gaps can be bridged, ultimately resulting in improved morbidity and reduced mortality; all lives are worth saving."
Dr Cherno S. Jallow, Consultant Paediatric Surgeon, Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, The Gambia
22 February 2024
King's Global Health Partnerships launches new health partnership with The Gambia
King’s Global Health Partnerships is delighted to announce an ambitious new partnership in The Gambia, adding to our well-established health partnerships in Somaliland, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia.
This new partnership builds on long-term collaboration between paediatric consultants at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital (the Evelina) and King’s College Hospital (KCH), with clinicians at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH) in Banjul, the capital of The Gambia.
Over the last decade the partnership has driven a range of improvements in the quality of care for sick babies and children at EFSTH. Through online training, outreach visits, mentoring and ad hoc support, achievements have included:
- Improved infection prevention and control practices in the neonatal care unit
- Strengthened emergency care through training on the assessment of critically unwell newborns and resuscitation
- Support for doctors’ postgraduate education, enabling them to provide highly specialised paediatric care.
There is an urgent need to build on the progress to date and to broaden the impact of the work beyond EFSTH.
The Gambia remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with recent health data showing a worrying upward trend in newborn, infant and under 5-mortality. For every 1,000 babies born today in The Gambia, 29 will die before they reach one month old.[1] This is more than double the Sustainable Development Goal target. Many of these deaths are from preventable and treatable complications – especially in the first day of life.
King’s Global Health Partnerships (KGHP) will bring significant expertise in successfully working with Ministries of Health and Higher Education; universities; health facilities across primary, secondary and tertiary care; and local communities.
KGHP will work alongside The Gambian Ministry of Health, supporting the achievement of key national health priorities.
As a clinician who has worked on this Global Health project with colleagues in the Gambia over the last few years I am very excited by this new partnership with KGHP. It will help us take this work to the next level. With the experience and expertise of colleagues within KGHP we will be able to make a huge impact on child mortality in The Gambia."
Dr Hammad Khan, Consultant Neonatologist, Evelina Children's Hospital
[1] The Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) and ICF. The Gambia demographic and health survey 2019-20, 2021. Available: https:// dhsprogram.com/publications/publication-FR369-DHS-FinalReports.cfm
About King's Global Health Partnerships (KGHP)
KGHP is King’s College London’s global initiative to improve the quality of healthcare in five sub-Saharan Africa countries. We are led by international development experts and bring together the academic expertise of King’s with the clinical expertise of three major hospitals, including the Evelina London.
About the Evelina Children's Hospital
As one of only two specialist children’s hospitals in London, the Evelina is a global centre of paediatric expertise. The Evelina clinicians involved in the partnership with ESFTH combine a breadth of paediatric expertise, including neonatology, surgery and urology, with extensive global health experience.
About Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH)
EFSTH is The Gambia’s only tertiary referral hospital with responsibility for the specialist care of sick newborn infants and children with surgical conditions. The teams at EFSTH work within huge resource constraints to provide specialist care to their patients.