Royal Victoria Clinic’s Efforts to provide a Holistic Health Solution outfit.

“We cover the full range of Medical Practice”

-Professor EGBE Philip Egbengu

Professor Egbengu, Proprietor of the Royal Victoria Clinic in Bamenda is the Head of Department of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the Catholic University, Bamenda. He is also Head of the Department of Health Economics, Policy and Management. Before this, he was the Foundation Pro-host of the Medical School which they created and eventually had accreditation from the Government of the Republic of Cameroon. The learned Professor in this interview throws light on measures so far carried out by the Royal Victoria Clinic to present a Holistic Health Solution outfit where every type of illness can be taken care of on the spot. Professor Egbe begins by telling us about his early life which impacted positively on the person he is today. He was interviewed by Francis Ekongang Nzante.

Excerpts

"I went through Primary and Secondary School up to High School in Cameroon. I proceeded to Nigeria where I read and got the following: MBBS,BSc, PhD, DPhEM, Cert. Rad, Mgt, BLS, ACLS, CRM, CCS and CFS that qualify me to practice medicine in Cameroon. I started this Clinic in Douala and when I had to come to Bamenda to initiate the Medical School of the Catholic University I had to move the Clinic from Douala to Bamenda at the location where you find us today at Foncha Street, Virgin Land specifically at the area referred to as Loh Benson Avenue. Despite the challenges coupled with the crisis rocking the region, we have struggled to hold our heads above water level. We are still going through developmental stages. To run a place like this, you don't have to rush it. You go through it in stages. We are about 60% complete and before the year runs out we should have reached the 100% point."

What is the specific range of services offered here?

We offer General Medical consultations on Regular and Emergency Bases. This means that if you are sick at night we could also immediately take care of you and that would be Emergency Consultation. We also do Specialist Consultation where we invite known specialists around Bamenda who work with us. We cover the full range of Medical Practice. We do Hospitalization and I can boast that in Bamenda we don't have a rival in terms of Hospitalization Facilities. We have a strong Laboratory which covers a wide range of laboratory requests. We are also dabbling into Medical Diagnostic Imagery that is Ultrasound, Radiography and the rest. In a short while we should be a hundred percent complete. We can comfortably provide all health services required by our community and country. 

What is your take on the health situation of Cameroonians and how far do you think the existing health structures are taking care of things?

In Africa as a whole and Cameroon in particular, health problems are dominantly infections. 70% of Hospital attendance is from infections and the remaining 30% are Non-Communicable Diseases like Hypertension, Diabetes amongst others. There is a disproportionate relationship between the sick people on the one hand and the available facilities to take care of their health needs. The amount of available facilities vis-à-vis the illnesses are very unbalanced. The application of the facilities is also posing a problem. People get sick and they don’t know where to go to. You have patients who come to you saying that they’ve been to many places to get their health problems solved. It shouldn’t be the case. Normally when a patient meets a Doctor he should get well. However, there is the possibility for a Doctor to refer a patient to a specialist.

Many people are interested to know in what way you will inject something new into what already exists through your activities.

The first thing I embarked on when I started this hospital was to sensitize patients on the need for early medical intervention. When you go to the Hospital early, you nip the problem in the bud.  When you allow your situation to degenerate and you go to the Hospital when the illness is far gone, it becomes more expensive and complicated. Survival chances become reduced when you go to the hospital late. 

Don’t you think there is a problem of supply chain in Cameroon?

Of course we have a problem with our supply chains be it from the pharmaceutical point or from the laboratory point of view. It is difficult to get some medications around the Northwest Region where I work now. I don’t know about the other regions in the country. It is very difficult to procure good drugs and when you get the good drugs they are expensive. Importation of drugs into Cameroon has a lot of complications and overheads that’s why drugs are very expensive in Cameroon. The same thing happens to Laboratory reagents and sometimes even before they get here they are expired. 

There is the persistent and disturbing problem of fake drugs.

It is a very serious problem and that is why many of us running hospitals rely much more on injectable medicine than on oral medication. Fifty percent of the oral medication that you see in the market is nonsense. 

You certainly collaborate with a number of experts in the practice.

I have a wide range of Doctors I work with in Bamenda. I have Seniour Doctors in their various fields that do consultations here. That’s why we do everything here; Gynecology, Pediatrics, General Medicines and all the rest. We have specialists in the various fields in Bamenda and we make full use of them. In our laboratory we do not only make use of Laboratory Scientists but we also make use of Pathologists who are senior practitioners not only from Bamenda but from other towns like Buea and Douala. So far it has been so good and people have built a lot of confidence and I think we can only get better as days go by.

 There is however a problem that I have which I think is a general problem. We were talking about Supply Chain Problems in Cameroon. The additional costs that is brought in by middle men is born by patients who have a very low economic power. Patients don’t sometimes come to the hospital because of the very high cost of drugs. The over professionalization of the health Sector makes it more difficult for the patients. I will give you an example. A Laboratory Technician opens a Laboratory where he carries out his investigations. A Pharmacist does the same. To make up for these, we have made every facility available here. In hospitals without all these facilities if a patient comes to the hospital and is in need of a Laboratory Test he will be sent to the Lab. He comes back with the results in two or three days and you do a prescription which he has to go and look for money to buy the drugs. All this while, the patient is sick. We have seen cases like that where people die in the process of getting themselves treated. The supply chain has to be cut short to remove those over heads so that people can afford. We should insist on operating generic medications. The government should come out with an essential drug list acknowledged by the WHO. A medication is called generic because it uses the base molecule. Pharmaceutical Companies produce those medications and give them brand names and the medication becomes ten times more expensive. We should go back to the essential drug list so that health can be gotten by the man on the streets. That fallacy of saying that generic medications don’t work should be removed from our heads forthwith.

Any concise message to people needing health services?  

When you are sick, you should go early to the hospital. Secondly, lack of funds should not be a reason for you not to go to the hospital. You don’t need money to come to this hospital. You can always pay when you have your health back. It’s just a contract of trust between the patient and the Hospital. We have had a couple of people who come and we treat them and they only pay afterwards. The issue of putting money before everything is very dangerous. Many of our illnesses also come as a result of habits. Cameroonians drink a lot, eat poorly and reserve very little time for sleep. These attitudes are not pro-life and should be discouraged.

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