On Thursday, December 17, 2015, officials of Pari Mutuel Urbain Cameroonais, PMUC, donated 20 beds, two oximeters and two ventilators to the Bamenda Regional Hospital.

Receiving the gifts, the Director of Bamenda Regional Hospital, Dr. Thompson Kinge Njie, thanked PMUC, saying the gifts are priority needs for the 60-year-old hospital with a 95-percent occupancy rate of its 400 beds.
Dr. Kinge Njie said many patients have complained about the old beds in the wards.

He explained that the oximeters will reinforce the existing few for the diagnosis of oxygen needs especially in the nursery, reanimation unit and in the casualty department.
The Director said the ventilators will increase the capacity in dealing with an average of 20 patients everyday who require oxygen as vital treatment in the theatre and wards.
Kinge said the 20 beds will transform one of the main wards, while the oximeters and ventilators will permit them handle more critical cases and emergencies than before.

“We do not have doubts that with such important life-saving means put at our disposal, we will save more lives and cut down costs related to evacuations,” Kinge said.

To him, the gifts are timely to supplement regular efforts made by the Government to upgrade the standards of the hospital. Dr. Kinge added that the gifts will encourage the entire staff and also generate a good feeling of job satisfaction.

On behalf of PMUC Director General, the Regional Director of PMUC for West and Northwest Regions, Jean Charles Paoletti, expressed the wish that the equipment will ameliorate the health of the patients and the population of the Northwest Region and beyond.

“This medical equipment worth FCFA 5 million which PMUC is donating today will enable patients have easy access to quality healthcare in Bamenda without being evacuated to Douala or Yaounde,” Paoletti said.

He said PMUC performed the same exercise on June 9, 2015, when they donated similar medical equipment to the Regional Hospital of Ebolowa in the Southwest Region.

Northwest Governor, Adolphe Lele L’Afrique, while appreciating PMUC for the gifts, called on other companies to emulate the example so as to save more lives.

“Since these gifts are being donated during Christmas period, I will plead with PMUC to come again next year, same time with more hospital needs,” the Governor said.

The occasion was attended, among others, by the SDF National Chairman, John Fru Ndi.