President Adama Barrow has said over 200 medical doctors from Cuba have been mobilised and are set to arrive in the country to boost the country’s health sector.
The president made this revelation while laying the foundation stone of the Mankamang Kumda health post on Friday.
The president said: “This is very important and it is part of the national development plan. The health sector is among the five top priorities for government. We are laying this foundation today, it is one of the health centres that we are coming to construct and we have also agreed with the contractors to start work immediately.
“We are doing six health centres, we are doing 18 health posts. We have completed five, we are coming to start 13 countrywide. The health sector is very very important to us but we want the facilities to be very close to the people. We want the people to access health [services].
“This is why we said we should also have ambulances that can make sure the people access health. We have bought 80 ambulances and we have started them distributing them in all the constituencies in The Gambia. But the ambulances are not enough, constructing these health facilities will be closer to the grassroots.
“That is not even enough. Because you cannot have health facilities, you have ambulances and you don’t have doctors. The human resource is important and we have mobilised over 200 medical doctors from Cuba as part of that human resource. Very soon they will arrive in this country. And these are specialists. This time we have a very competent minister who was very selective. This time he went in for specialists and we will make sure all these health facilities will be provided with doctors.”
