Clinical Services Department

The clinic in Fajara treats patients while the clinic in Keneba runs a primary healthcare service for the entire West Kiang region—and both use the daily flow of patients to train local healthcare workers and answer practical medical questions. This matters because The Gambia has a severe shortage of doctors and nurses. The department directly addresses that gap by running training programmes for nursing and medical students, and by teaching healthcare workers already in post to deliver better care. It also tackles problems that arise in everyday practice—small studies that might, for example, test a simpler way to diagnose a common infection or improve how a chronic condition is managed in a resource-limited setting. If this succeeds, the impact is twofold. First, patients in West Kiang and Fajara receive better care today. Second, the training and quality-improvement methods create a lasting infrastructure: a generation of Gambian healthcare workers who can maintain and raise standards long after the current research projects end. The department also directly supports the Unit’s wider science by providing clinical expertise and hosting larger studies—so its work quietly underpins much of the research that happens here.