Mo can you please subscribe [log in to unmask] Thanks in advance Matarr >From: Momodou Camara <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: FWD:Campama Crisis "Resolved" >Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 14:44:50 -0500 > >---------------------- Information from the mail header >----------------------- >Sender: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list > <[log in to unmask]> >Poster: Momodou Camara <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: FWD:Campama Crisis "Resolved" >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >Campama Crisis "Resolved" > >The Independent (Banjul) >NEWS >July 16, 2004 >Posted to the web July 16, 2004 >Banjul > >The hydra-headed crisis caused by a chronic shortage of drugs for patients >at the Campama Psychiatric home has been "promptly" resolved, culminating >in the re-admittance of mental cases again, according to the Royal Victoria >Teaching Hospital's Public Relations Officer. > >Baboucarr Ngum told The Independent Wednesday, that the drug shortage >crisis, which had so seriously hamstrung operations at the country's only >mental home, is now a thing of the past as the arrival of new drugs are >distributed. > >Ngum said the problem of the psychiatric home has been one of congestion, >as staff at the centre literally struggled to come to terms with the >inherent problems in balancing the dearth in drugs and the paucity of staff >to deal with inmates, some of whom were released to mainstream society in a >desperate bid to decongest the hitherto crowded mental home. According to >the PRO, several consignments of drugs including modecate had arrived in >the country, as details of the Campama crisis were being made public >knowledge. "It is true that we have been encountering problems in dealing >with the drug shortage, but the situation has assumed normalcy. It should >also be borne in mind that the drugs are very expensive and can only be >procured from the UK and other European countries. What is more, the number >of patients we routinely have to deal with has been swelling without let >and this had brought its own problem revolving around our ability to cope >with the situation" Ngum expostulated. > >The RVTH official sought to calm the affrighted nerves of relatives of >people with mental cases, by making reassuring pronouncements about the >readiness of the RVTH to deal with recurrent problems about drugs, which >can only be procured from far away Europe and the administrative >bottlenecks caused by the inadequacies of a skeletal Campama staff, who >have been at their wit's end to deal with the crisis. > >"We are now restructuring the Campama operation scheme to make it more >responsive to the growing demand for the attention of mental cases. > >There is no grain of truth in the assertion that the RVTH do not care about >what happens at the Campama. What is true is that we as Gambians and as >human beings are very passionate about conditions at the psychiatric home. >If that will serve to show how sincerely we take the Campama issue I must >tell The Independent the clockwork frequency and unfailing regularity of my >visits there to keep track of the situation there' he added. > >Campama Psychiatry's dearth of medicinal drugs to treat its mentally >deranged patients reached crisis point recently with violent inmates, being >allowed to leave the country's only mental home, which was at its wits' end >in dealing with the chronic shortage. > >Reports had alluded to the fact that the overwhelming majority of inmates >with varying degrees of mental imbalance have been released back to the >community as Campama grapples with the chronically acute shortage of drugs >to calm violent fits. Reasons ascribed for freeing the inmates included the >chronic lack of medicines and what close relatives of some of the inmates >called the skeletal staff who have been "mentally and physically >overstretched" to look after over a hundred patients. > >According to these reports only a handful of inmates were left in the >mental home, whose personnel recently made plaintive calls to the Royal >Victoria Teaching Hospital for the provision of drugs to treat its >neglected inmates. Due to the frequency of violence among inmates at >Campama, the demand for nerve-calming drugs has been of permanent >significance. > >"We understand and accept these reasons for these inmates being let out, >but imagine the danger these sick people pose to the society, women and >children especially. Many of these runaway Campama inmates can be seen >roaming our markets and other public places. Are we to sit and wait for >another disaster like the one which happened in Bakau, where two people >were killed by a mentally deranged man just months ago" a concerned >relative of one Campama inmate who wished to remain anonymous was quoted as >lamenting. > >According to him, his brother who was mentally imbalanced had escaped from >the Campama Psychiatric home months ago and was rehabilitated by his >family, since at the time he had not shown any propensity for violence and >was not therefore an apparent threat to anyone. > >"However, recently he has been quite violent and dangerous even for his own >relatives. He is capable of doing harm and we took him back to Campama for >him to be readmitted. To our utter surprise, we were told that the only >mental home in the country no longer takes in patients. It left us >completely flabbergasted," he explained, lamentably adding; "many other >mentally disturbed patients have been allowed to leave the mental home with >serious risks to society. Something must be done about it". > >He said the only positive response by the Department of State for Health >should be the requisitioning of medical materials and medicines, which >would see patients who have been allowed to rejoin society but still with >mental deficiencies to be readmitted at the mental home. > >This development comes days after The Independent reported what it called >the "cataclysmic" level to which the acute shortage of drugs to treat >patients at the Campama hospital has reached. This dreary situation had >prompted the psychiatric centre to stop admitting patients with advanced >stages of mental illnesses as the RVTH allegedly failed to respond >positively. Overwhelmed by the situation senior hospital staff thought the >only prudent measure at their disposal was to suspend the admittance of >more patients at the centre in the interim as they struggle to deal with >the dearth in drugs, which according to sources the Royal Victoria Teaching >Hospital is not in a position to provide. > >Sources claimed that the decision not to admit patients was effected since >May when the situation aggravated. > >A senior official at the psychiatric centre who wished to remain anonymous >told The Independent that they had written to the RVTH management, >communicating to them their concerns over the chronic lack of drugs there. >He said the dispatch had conveyed their request for the teaching hospital >to supply the psychiatric centre with drugs to deal with mental cases in >the short term. The conditions in Campama are getting worse every day, they >added. > >"A lot of patients are still being brought in although we are at pains to >let the world know that little or no drugs are available to treat them, and >we are facing problems to deal with them" he had added. He also accused the >RVTH of being negligent about conditions at the Campama, with its >management team hardly even making routine inspections of the psychiatric >centre, the only mental home in the country. "This can only amount to the >fact that the RVTH does not care about what happens at the Campama" he >protested. > >Another anonymous Campama staff also decried the state of the food being >made available to inmates, which he described as "very poor and unhygienic >diet". He said as a result patients hardly eat. The anonymous official >further revealed that even the beds of the hospital were full of bed bugs, >which makes it difficult for inmates to sleep. > >"When we informed the RVTH management about these things they were never in >the habit of responding positively" he claimed, adding that the doors in >the hospital rooms are not in good shape, making it easy for people with >mental problems to slip out without the knowledge of the hospital >staff. "Two inmates were killed in motor traffic after they escaped from >the compound this way" he explained. > > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------= > >Copyright =A9 2004 The Independent. All rights reserved. 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