Infos Santé of Thursday, 25 April 2013

Source: Cameroon Tribune

Nightmare Accessing Hospital

Patients, who cannot walk up the hilltop, are debilitated by rough roads and insecurity.

The Logpom Notre Dame de L'Amour Catholic Hospital is an indispensable facility fundamentally bringing health care closer to the Logpom community and the population of Douala V Subdivision. Access to the hospital and the use of its services are seriously undermined by passage ways.

Positioned to offer maximum accessibility and proximity to the population of the neighbourhood, the hospital has come to be of little importance by virtue of the roads leading to it.

Positioned at a reasonable proximity to most families of the community, the hospital suffers threats of abandonment due to the rutted earth roads ramming from it. Every visitor and all of the staff interviewed express the desire to avoid the nightmarish experience of conveying patients, especially people weakened under severe sicknesses to the hospital along the roads. As a result several patients have debilitated on the bumpy, muddy and furrowed stretches trying to reach the hospital by vehicle.

One of the most horrible attempts has been by a lady suffering tuberculosis, who would walk herself to the hilltop hospital to shun the nightmare of going up by an automobile. Unfortunately, she slipped off the rough surface into one of the grass-laden furrows along the road. Her trouble simply multiplied. Besides just seeking medical attention against Tuberculosis she needed emergency care for the bruises she sustained as a result.

The problem may not just be access to the health facility. Gaining access to or from homes is impracticable by road. There has been a new rise of insecurities along the bushy earth roads at night, according to an inhabitant, Foulambe Edouard. Both inhabitants and medical staff of the structure gripe against negligence and incorrect prioritisation of projects by the local Municipal Council. They say they are not consulted when choosing projects for the development of the area.