Bitom a village in Sangmelima in the Dja and Lobo Division of the South Region is situated about 3.5 km from town. The village is proud to host the Sangmelima Referral Hospital which hopefully will impact the locality's socio-economically.

The town has as a result, benefited from electricity and potable water access with business is flourishing.

Petty trading has curbed the rural exodus among youths in the area as they have now embraced this form of economic activity as their means of survival and self-employment. The difficulty villagers faced before the construction of the hospital has paved way to development in the area.

“It was difficult in those days. The village was like a forest with very few houses,” Ella Rodrigue, said. The young petty trader said the hospital has come to improve the condition of the villagers. Business, may not be as booming as in the cities, but it is able to feed families, he observed.

His Majesty, Franky Roger Obame Akono, Third Class Chief of Sangmelima Village 1- Bitom says the SRH is a 'jewel' that has changed the lives of many of its subjects.

The hospital has opened the village to development as well as salvage some unemployed youths from challenges particularly in the area of employment. Barbers’ shops, provision stores are some of the opportunities the youth have embraced for their sustenance.

With some of these makeshift stores springing up at the entrance of the hospital, the villagers are exploring avenues and will surely and gradually transform the immediate hospital precincts to a business hub to reflect what obtains in some big hospitals in Yaounde like the General, Central, Teaching and District Hospitals of the city.

Cynthia Bilouga Mbassi who is on transit in Bitom saw in the area a fertile business ground. Apart from assisting her relatives, she kept focused on a provision store. Other villagers are satisfying clients, most of whom are patients and staff of the hospital with basic commodities. It is a win-win exercise by so doing, affirmed clients and vendors.

The village is now hot cake for investors with many seeking to acquire land in the village. “Some six cabinet ministers have already paid for pieces of land in this village,” disclosed His Majesty Obame.

The hospital has also helped the elderly folks in the village as they do not have to travel to Yaounde and Douala for medical attention anymore.

“Many of them suffer rheumatism and severe bone problems,” and like Marion Meze’e, the hospital has eased their burdens a lot. Some of my subjects travelled out of town for CT scanning,” said His Majesty Obame.

The cost of transportation and medical attention is within the reach of all families. Some of them underwent scanning exercises at more than FCFA 100,000 in hospitals in Yaounde and Douala.

The same medical exercises is being carried out here in the SRH at give-away prices- scanning for example at FCFA 60,000. This, among other treatment offered by the hospital, has changed the lives of many villagers of Bitom, according to the traditional ruler of Bitom.

He recalled how it sounded like one of the vain political promises when news of the project first announced. It was like a dream when the project actually took off.

The timeframe almost stalled our hope but this gradually changed when the edifice was completed and equipment installed. The entire village were enthused when consultation eventually commenced.

“Thank you President, Paul Biya for this magnificent health structure. It has changed our lives,” His Majesty Obame, his subjects, visitors and patients to the Sangmelima Referral Hospital echoed.