Health Minister inaugurates Imagery Centre in Bamenda

The Public Health Minister, Andre Mama Fouda has opened a 700 million CFAF Medical Imagery facility in Bamenda. “This precious and most welcome Presidential gift is to enhance health care in the North West Region,” he said.

Bamenda people greeted the inauguration of the Regional Centre for Medical Imagery yesterday, April 21, 2015, by the Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda with excitement and appreciation.

The Minister challenged stakeholders to use and preserve the health facility for posterity. He revealed that the beautiful architectural unit, equipped with modern health facilities worth about FCFA 700 million, was the fulfillment of President Biya’s commitment on December 31, 2007, to provide regional hospitals with haemodialysis and C-T Scan centres.

He said efforts to improve the health of the population of the North West Region were equally evident with the imminent construction of the Bamenda Reference Hospital, whose site the Minister earlier visited in the neighbourhood of Bamenda III Subdivision.

The event also heralded the Minister’s announcement that the process to acquire new equipment for overhauling the Bamenda Haemodialysis Centre was on course.

The Government Delegate to the City Council, Ndumu Vincent Nji, said the inauguration puts the Bamenda Regional Hospital at the centre of modernity in health facilities. On his part, the Director of the Bamenda Regional Hospital, Dr Kinge Thompson Njie, pointed out that event marked the end of patient evacuation out of the North West Region for scanning.

The impact of the facility is indeed evident with the disclosure by Dr Kinge Thompson that in barely five months of its test running since November 21, 2014, the Imagery Centre already boasts 1043 C-T Scans and 3566 X-Rays.

The Chief of Centre, Dr Laah Njoyo Sylvain, also stated that 27 per cent of the C-T Scans and 36 per cent X-Ray patients were resident out of the North West Region, with Mamfe, Bafoussam, Douala, Yaounde, Ngaoundere and Garoua as the main patient supply areas.

The Bamenda population is counting the blessings of the Regional Centre for Medical Imagery that showcases quality but cheap services. Dr Kinge Thompson Njie told Cameroon Tribune that medical tests at the centre are 50 per cent cheaper than elsewhere in the country.

Information gathered shows that the centre, which is a specialised service of the Bamenda Regional Hospital, boasts a C-T scan machine, two fixed and mobile X-Ray machines, a dental scan, a Mammograph and an Echography machine to cover conventional and specialised X-Rays, and C-T Scans, breast Mammograms, dental scans and Echographies.

It works round the clock with two radiologists, three technicians, three specialised secretaries and two auxiliary staff for hygiene and sanitation. From the look of things, the centre is a facility of hope for patients who have been crying in the rain.