By Kumba Leigh
The Premier Group Foundation Trust (TPGFT) is a philanthropic foundation with focus on charitable healthcare services.
The organisation has recently offered free medical services to over 750 people in Central River Region in an outreach exercise conducted in Kuntaur Jakaba village, in Niani District.
The initiative is part of TPGFT’s planned activities, which include conducting health-care outreach every four months to the less-privileged people and hard-to-reach communities across the country.
The health outreach is usually an educational and interactive day-long event with the aim of promoting health, and educating, empowering and inspiring people in all aspects of health with special emphasis on hypertension, skin-rashes, hematuria, schistosomiasis and diabetes.
Organised under the theme, ‘Health care; help is our mission’, the outreach outpatient clinic was spearheaded by the foundation of young university-trained nurses, student nurses, doctors, teachers, businessmen and other professions.
Sankung Minteh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and founder of TPGFT, said the association’s goal is to contribute its quota to national development, since health is key and fundamental to humans. He emphasised the need for everyone to have easy access to health facilities and services.
He revealed that they started screening on hypertension and diabetes at the beginning of the activity in 2017; and now expanded it to include other sicknesses such as skin-rashes, hematuria and schistosomiasis.
CEO Minteh reported that they have recorded 45 antenatal ultrasound scanning, 100 lab patients screened for hypertension, and diabetes, and critical conditions like hematuria in children, chronic skin infections, fungi infections, infertility problem, and high-blood-sugar.
He observed that majority of illnesses found during the outreach were hypertension, skin-rashes, schistosomaisis, diabetes and hematuria among children.
The CEO revealed that the outreach activities are exclusively funded by members of the association; that the name hypertension and diabetes screening is now changed to outreach outpatient clinic incorporating six doctors, five nurses, lab technicians, and all parameters of a standard clinic, with an ultrasound.
Mr Minteh described the outreach as very important to them because the afore-mentioned diseases are really affecting many people in most communities. He announced that their next intervention will be in URR.
Imam E O Dampha, Secretary General and Head of Admin Programme, TPGFT gave the genesis of their outreach activities. He informed that it started in March 2017-2018 in Tanji, Kiang Sankandi, Sotuma Sare in URR, Choya in CRR.
“We have collaborated with Change-for-Change and Kombo Yerewaa Kafo to conduct a mega free healthcare programme in Faraba-Bantan Kombo East. The importance of the outreach in communities cannot be over emphasised. Access to health care services and facilities within the district are always difficult, hard to reach and expensive,” he lamented.
Abdul Karim Fye, 6th year Medicine student, School of Medicine, University of The Gambia, said people should observe their meals and eat more of natural foods, stressing that starchy foods, oil, salt, and fats precipitate the surge of the burden of hepatitis, hypertension and diabetes.
He noted that as medical personnel they should not always expect people to meet them; rather they sometimes go and meet people in their communities and render services.
Mr Fye urged his healthcare colleagues to be more patient, and to always dialogue with patients about their illnesses. He also advised that people go for screening to know their health status, and not wait until they fall sick.
“We see people from the rural areas visiting hospitals only if they are brought by an ambulance and that should change. They should make it a habit to be going for regular check-ups to know their health status,” he stated.
Mr Fye suggested that there be more healthcare workers deployed to the rural areas.
Mama Jaiteh, and Alieu Saho, both beneficiaries, expressed delight over the treatment.
Mama said is unfortunate that they rarely have such healthcare assistance free of charge; that most of the time, they cannot afford such expensive prescription drugs.
