Cameroon
Health
$65,000 Goal
Summary of the Situation
The San Martin de Porres Hospital in Yaounde treats more than 155,000 patients annually. It has a single 15-year-old X-ray device, with over 6,000 X-rays taken annually. The equipment is not working, making specific diagnoses impossible or very difficult. This aggravates their situation, increasing mortality in some instances due to the impossibility of timely detection. The people do not have the means or funds to be treated in a different hospital.
The country does not have quality public health; the one provided is neither free nor universal.
How will the funds be used?
Purchase a DRGEM X-ray device with printer and generator, model GXR-C40SD of 40Kw.
The purchase of the equipment is made locally with the supplier PROMEDICOM SARL.
The budget includes the purchase of the equipment and its installation.
The Sisters’s Response
The hospital seeks to guarantee medical care and diagnosis to all its patients. Due to the economic difficulties of most of the population, especially in the outlying neighborhoods of the capital, the hospital adjusts the prices of each service as much as possible so that the average population can access healthcare in our hospital. The listening and social services area deals with and assesses the cases of the most economically disadvantaged people, providing them with the necessary medical care.
Systemic Impact
Like many African countries, Cameroon has no social security safety net for the most vulnerable. Public hospitals require patients to pay for the full cost of services, putting regular and emergency health care out of reach for the most vulnerable people. The salaries of state personnel are low, and there is a lot of corruption throughout the health system. If a person does not have sufficient financial means, they can go unattended, without diagnosing, without doing necessary laboratory or imaging tests essential to diagnose an illness. For surgeries, the patient has to buy a list of medications and consumables, anesthesia, gauze, cotton, suture threads… according to the list made by the surgeon and anesthetist. They are given the price of the operation (labor), the price of hospitalization, and any other costs. In the end, many patients who have been diagnosed cannot have surgery because they do not have sufficient financial means.
The San Martín de Porres Dominican Hospital Center, run and managed by several Dominican congregations for the last 15 years in the Mvog-Betsi neighborhood of Yaounde (Cameroon), treats more than 155,000 patients yearly. The cost of services is reasonable because the hospital is not-for-profit. Their goal is to bring medical services to the level of all patients so that no one is left without care because they have no money. They use fair “flat rate” prices to cover only expenses in operations. In the Dominican hospital there is no corruption, there is a very good reception, professionalism and social service, and in the case of the most vulnerable patients, their situation is studied and the service is provided by providing payment plans or reducing the cost. The sick come from Yaunde and all regions of the country.
Keeping costs as low as possible to serve those who come to the hospital makes it impossible to update expensive equipment. Currently, the hospital is without an X-ray machine.
The radiology service performs more than 6,000 X-rays each year.
Since the hospital opened in 2008, a single X-ray device, now 15 years old, has been available. X-rays taken with this device are currently invalid for a medical diagnosis; the equipment is not working correctly. This means the hospital cannot provide this service normally and must refer patients to other hospitals in the capital. Many patients do not go to different centers because of financial problems, leaving diagnoses unmade and patients not appropriately treated, increasing the risk of worsening the patient’s illness.