Gambian doctors are facing the difficult situation of having to make hard choices as coronavirus bears down on the country’s poor and underfunded healthcare system.

Doctors at the country’s main referral hospital, Edward Francis Teaching Hospital in Banjul, say they are “exasperated” with the dire situation as the country’s healthcare system is ill prepared to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. 

“Today in my on call, I witnessed a previously healthy 60 year woman who came in with shortness of breath and within 6 hours she was begging for air. Bear in mind we were giving her oxygen already,” a doctor who preferred anonymity told Gainako news. 

“Coronavirus is the worst killer diease I have seen

“All the oxygen in hospital is finished and patients are still coming. The private hospitals are closed or referring to us and we at EFSTH can not turn anyone away. Prominent Gambians are coming in with symptoms, and they are seeing firsthand the lack of investment in our healthcare.”

The doctor added: “Lastly on a normal day we get about 1 or 2 dead bodies from outside the hospital for certification, now the norm is minimum 6 dead bodies.

“Finally the family of one deceased and our staff almost got into a physical altercation because the family demanded to take the body of a suspected Covid 19 patient away for burial prior to testing.

“The problem is that in all Covid 19 suspected death, the corpse is kept until the test result is confirmed in order to avoid spreading the virus in the family. This causes a problem with most families who demand to take bodies of the deceased for immediate burial.

“The situation is already out of hand and getting worse. We the Doctors at A/E are exasperated.”

The Gambia has seen a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in the last two weeks. At least 95 new cases of coronavirus were registered on Friday and one death. 

The total coronavirus cases in the country is 529 with nine deaths.