baptist

Societe
Kimeng Hilton NDUKONG | 06-03-2018 06:44

The four-storey Cameroon Baptist Convention facility is worth at least 500 million FCFA.

At the sprawling 15,000 square-metre site of the Yaounde Baptist Hospital in the Ekoumdoum neighbourhood, it is almost a race against time. Landscapers, carpenters, electricians and cleaners are putting finishing touches to the new four-storey Cameroon Baptist Convention, CBC health facility located some 100 metres from the highway that continues to Awae Escalier, Biteng and the East Region.

The facility is about 500 metres from Carrefour de l’Amitié (former Carrefour de la mort), adjacent College Petou and directly opposite Pinnacle of Success Bilingual Academy. “The hospital – whose construction began in September 2016 with funding from the French Development Agency, AFD - will go operational on March 12, 2018, though some finishing will continue on higher floors.

However, its formal dedication will be sometime next month,” explained King Godlove Ejimu, Site Foreman, representing the CBC Health Services Technical Department.

Mbeng Frankline Ngwain, Head of the Ekounou-Yaounde Baptist Health Centre, told Cameroon Tribune that the hospital comprises about 200 rooms and waiting rooms, general out-patient services, pharmacy and laboratory, physiotherapy, ultrasound and x-ray departments; VIP consultation and treatment space, eye department, dental services, maternity and Women’s Health Programme (cervical cancer screening and treatment, family planning, etc.) An Ear, Nose, Throat, ENT department will also be included in the current building.

At least 250 medical and paramedical staff will work in the hospital, including General Practitioners, a gynaecologist, an ENT specialist, a dental surgeon, etc. “We will begin with at least 40 beds, mostly in the maternity and children’s ward,” notes Mbeng. Meanwhile, hospital facilities include a biogas plant for heating and boiling water, and powering a standby generating set; and a temporary wooden canteen for staff and patients.

The Yaounde Baptist Hospital, Ekoumdoum is also equipped with a lift that takes 18 people at a time, weighing 1,000 kg. The elevator is able to take patients in wheel chairs and on stretchers. The spacious rooms are all equipped with air conditioners, and there is ample space for parking. There are at least two cleaners or housekeepers on each floor.

A wooden structure will be set up behind the hospital for antenatal care, while all windows and beds will have mosquito nettings. Similarly, a borehole has been drilled to ensure regular water supply, with two huge reservoirs placed on top of the building.

Yaounde Baptist Hospital, Ekoumdoum is the ninth CBC hospital. Construction of other hospitals is underway in Kumba in the South West, Ngounso in Adamawa, Bafoussam in the West and Nkwen in the North West Regions. Government authorisation is awaited for them to go operational.

Youngwa Zaccs, Administrator of the Etoug-Ebe and Ekounou Baptist Health Centres, Yaounde, disclosed that plans are underway for the new health facility in Ekoumdoum to eventually become a specialised hospital after the construction of more structures and departments.