# Strengthening healthcare through family medicine training in The Gambia: The journey so far

## TL;DR

The paper discusses the development of family medicine training in The Gambia to improve healthcare access and quality.

## Contribution

It highlights the establishment of a family medicine training program despite challenges like brain drain and poor infrastructure.

## Key findings

- Family medicine is critical for improving healthcare in low-income countries like The Gambia.
- A training center with 7 residents was established despite existing challenges.
- There is hope that trained personnel will enhance the Gambian health system.

## Abstract

According to the World Health Organizations (WHO) family medicine forms the bedrock upon for accessible, affordable and equitable healthcare for any country. The need for family doctors is more acute for low income countries like The Gambia. More so that The Gambian health infrastructure is suboptimal and appropriate health personnel is low. This is worsened by brain drain leading to poor health indices. Despite these challenges and more, the department of Family Medicine was accredited for training in the Gambia with improved infrastructure (at the training centre), with 7 residents. Though there are still challenges there are also opportunities and strengths. There is therefore hope that the right personnel will be produced for an improved Gambian health system.