Clinical Services Department

The Clinical Services Department serves the Gambian public, providing access to the medical care available at the clinics in Fajara and Keneba, as well as supporting research in the Unit by providing care to staff of the Unit and members of the public who have volunteered to be part of our research. We provide general (internal) medicine and paediatric services in Fajara. In Keneba, we provide primary healthcare services to residents of West Kiang.
We constantly seek to improve the service we offer, using Quality Improvement methods to ensure we are successful. We have training programmes for our staff and for students of the nursing and medical schools in The Gambia and aim to teach healthcare workers to deliver the best quality of care that they can.
We support research more directly by undertaking small studies that answer practical questions we identify in our medical practice, as well as hosting projects undertaken by Unit scientists and supporting the scientists with specific clinical skills and our expertise.

The Clinical Services Department exists to support clinical research at the Unit by providing primary health care to staff and their family members, medical care to study participants, primary health care to the population of West Kiang, and access to paediatric and internal medical services to the general public. Both outpatient and inpatient services are offered at the Fajara site.
The Department supports research with specific clinical skills, such as ultrasound, GI endoscopy and bronchoscopy. More intensive studies are hosted in the ward.
Alongside this, the Department supports local healthcare training institutions by providing clinical attachments to all levels of nursing students, medical students and doctors in training.
The department focuses on Quality Improvement in healthcare, with an active programme of projects aimed to improve the care delivered in the department. A suite of guidelines have been developed and are publicly available.
We have developed an electronic medical record system, which enables us to record clinical activity for day-to-day operational reasons, but also gives us access to data that can be used to improve quality and to better understand the conditions seen in the Department.
The Department hosts small research projects which answer questions that arise during clinical practice. Examples have included studies of the relationship between respiratory illness and air quality, validation of a locally produced buffer for a point of care test and a study of antimicrobial usage.
Collaborations are sought with organisations and individuals who can further the objectives of the Department, particularly when they are able to offer skills which are not currently found within the Department.