PM inaugurates Bertoua Referral Hospital amid stalled projects in Buea, Bamenda

Bertoua, the capital of Cameroon’s East Region, witnessed a boost to its healthcare system with the inauguration of a new referral hospital on Monday, June 10, by Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute.

This new facility, now the largest hospital in the region, boasts a capacity of 102 beds, with 90 allocated for conventional hospitalizations and 12 for the intensive care unit.

The hospital, a state-of-the-art infrastructure organized into 12 main buildings, includes an operation unit, an intensive care unit, a laboratory and sterilization unit, a pharmacy unit, an emergency unit, and a medical imaging unit equipped with a scanner, radiography, ultrasound, and other essential services.

This hospital is part of a larger initiative by President Paul Biya, who has initiated the construction of two Regional hospitals and eight referral hospitals across the country’s 10 regions to enhance the healthcare sector.

While the completion of the Bertoua referral hospital marks a significant milestone, similar projects in the English-speaking North West and South West Regions have stalled.

These projects, intended to provide advanced healthcare services, have faced long periods of abandonment due to security concerns.

Contractors and government officials have cited insecurity as the primary reason for halting the construction of these hospitals.

However, regional elites and local authorities are increasingly calling for the resumption of these projects, pointing to an improvement in the security situation.

In Buea, the capital of the South West Region, local leaders have consistently urged the government to restart the construction of the referral hospital.

The project was abandoned in 2018 due to security issues, but local officials now argue that the atmosphere is sufficiently secure for work to resume.

The Mayor of Buea, David Mafani Namange, who also heads the ruling CPDM party section in the city, has been vocal about the need to recommence the project.

“…the project was abandoned not because the government did not want to realize it but because our own brothers and sisters who picked up arms went and were attacking workers there. Now there’s relative peace in Buea and you can see that with the influx of internally displaced persons, the number of hospital beds in Buea are not sufficient and that’s a very high-level medical facility and we think and I know you people will bear with me that Molyko is relatively calm for that project to be re-engaged and completed within a reasonable period,” Mayor Namange stated in a March 24 interview.

The Buea referral hospital, initially designed to be completed in 18 months, was intended to serve as a teaching hospital for the University of Buea and as one of the medical facilities for the 2019 African Cup of Nations, which Cameroon was set to host.

Similarly, the Bamenda referral hospital in the North West Region has also faced long periods of abandonment.

Local authorities, including the Fon of Nkwen, have repeatedly appealed to the government to resume work on the hospital.

These appeals highlight the critical need for advanced medical facilities in the regions, which have been left unrealized due to ongoing conflicts.

Images of abandoned Referral Hospital construction in Buea:

©Mimi Mefo Info