Gov’t should give more subventions to church-run health services - Dr Tih

The Director of Cameroon Baptist Convention, CBC, Health Services, Dr. Pius Tih Muffih, has called on the Government to give substantial subventions, not only to the CBC Health Services, but also to all church-run health institutions.

Dr. Tih, a trained HIV/AIDS specialist in Africa and WHO consultant, believes that Government’s subvention to church-run health services will imply helping the rural poor, who are in their numbers.

This, he explains, will enable the denominational health institutions to reduce the cost of medication, thereby, making health care affordable to the rural communities.

Dr. Tih, who was guest speaker at the matriculation programme of the students of the Baptist Training School for Health Personnel, BTSHP, Kumbo, says the institution is the CBC Health Service nursery for health personnel and maintains that the Health Board employs a huge number of Cameroonians.

In an interview granted The Post, Dr. Tih highlights the role the CBC Health Services plays in assisting Government in health care provision, employment and lots more.

Says Dr. Tih: I think the CBC Health Services has been assisting the Government as much as possible in the domain of health care provision as well as providing jobs to Cameroonians. From 1975 to date, we have quadrupled the number of personnel that are in our service and they have been able to keep our services afloat, thanks to the leadership in place and the sustenance from God. In fact, we cannot say we have done it ourselves.

Our services have continued to move ahead and we have continued to improve on the quality of care that we provide. So, we are really very thankful to God.

How important is the BTSHP?

It is the factory that manufactures the personnel that you see within the Health Board. It produces staff that is worth their salt, staff of quality. The quality of care within the Health Board has significantly improved and, over the years, the training school has continued to produce the quality of nurses, midwives, laboratory technicians and pharmacy staff that we need. That explains why we do not go out to the open market to employ staff. We employ from our own training school, because, we are sure of the quality, the kind of personnel that are coming out of BTSHP who already understand our vision; they know our Mission Statement and they are prepared for the job, not just general production, mass production which you may find elsewhere just to dump in the market for whoever may want to have. So, I attach a lot of importance to the training school because, without it, the quality we have now will not be there, the number of personnel we have now will not be there and we can only say we want to see it grow from strength to strength by improving on the infrastructure, on the number and quality of staff that are in the school. So, BTSHP is actually our nursery in the Health Board.

What has been some of the difficult moments so far witnessed by the Health Services?

Cameroonians inherited the medical services in 1975 with all its challenges. Missionaries did what they could with the limited funds and personnel they had. They did not depend on patients fees to earn their salaries. Cameroonians had to raise funds for salaries, drugs and infrastructure. The patients could not understand these details. The development of policies, job descriptions, key strategies for sustainability of services, and recruitment and training of personnel stood out as key challenges facing the new leadership. However, as God will have it, we succeeded in developing many of our policies and guidelines in keeping with the labour laws and Ministry of Health guidelines.

What plans do you have for the future?

We need dedicated and committed personnel who understand our mission and vision statements. We need staff who are not eye servants; staff who say what they do and do what they say.

Secondly, it is not enough to hire personnel. Training and retraining of personnel is the key to quality services. We need to be trained for the job, not just general education. Thirdly, we need to retain our staff. We all know that labour is mobile but if we have frequent staff turnover, then, we will never grow.

Fourth point; there are many other health care providers in the country. The CBCHS must be aware of this and make sure it is able to function in an environment that is competitive. Fifth point; drugs constitute the life wire of a health system. Therefore, all efforts must be made to preserve money for drugs. Finally, the roles between the clergy and the laity should be clearly defined.