According to a study released in January by the medical journal The Lancet, a patient going through surgery in Africa is twice as likely to die following the operation than elsewhere in the world.
The reason, the report says is becuase of minimal follow-up appointments after surgery,the poor state of the equipment, and a lack of competent doctors.
The study includes The Gambia, and its main hospital, the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital in Banjul. In this hospital, around 200 000 patients are treated every year.
But the conditions are poor, and doctors sometimes have to improvise to do their job as Claire Bargelès explains in this, the third report in a series of five on health in the Gambia.
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