About 500 successful heart surgeries already

Shisong Cardiac Centre coping with huge electricity bills 
- Huge electricity and fuel bills, escalating cost of essential appliances etc
- Goodwill gestures from public badly needed
By Njodzefe Nestor in Bamenda

SOCAPED team and management of the Cardiac Center pose for a picture

Authorities of the Shisong Cardiac Centre have expressed fears that the centre may be forced to close its doors if something is not done and soon too, to alleviate its running cost. They raised the alarm on 23 April 2015, during the Board of Directors evaluation meeting, which took place in Kumbo in the presence of the President of the Follow-Up Committee of the Cardiac Centre-Ministry of Public Health Partnership, Prof. Arthur Essomba.
    The Board Meeting was aimed to review the centre’s activities in 2014; examine challenges faced and chat a way forward.
    In her stock-taking report the Manager of the Center, Rev Sr. Jethro Nkenglefac,    regretted that one the biggest challenges the centre faces is the difficulty of bankrolling the huge running cost especially picking up the ever rising electricity bills and the fat amounts spent on fuel for the stand-by generating plant used during power failure. She said the fact that about 88 percent of surgeries are sponsored through the institution’s Heart Foundation does not make things any easier for the centre’s management.
    She however saluted the visit of the General Manager of the electricity supplier, ENEO to the centre, saying his coming only inspires hope for the near future.

    Other challenges heralded were related to inadequate logistics: lack of a CT scanner; water shortage; lack of proper control and care of patients’ diet and hygiene and lack of a booster to reinforce oxygen production.
    However, Rev. Jethro admitted that it was not all challenges, challenges and challenges in 2014. She enumerated landmark achievements in the face of the hurdles, noting that 481 successful heart surgeries for both children and grown-ups were performed between 2009 and 2015 and 0ver 1500 pupils and students screened for heart ailments, with many of them now undergoing follow-up at the centre.
Rev. Jethro noted with satisfaction the coming of a resident surgeon and the growing staff strength which have combined with the purchase of a new bus to boost the centre’s outreach programmes.
    According to the centre’s Clinical Director Dr. Jean Claude Ambassa, six out of the ten regions of the country have been covered notably the North West, South West, West, Littoral, centre and south regions.
    Prof. Arthur Essomba, president of the follow up committee of the Cardiac Center-Minsante Partnership, lauded board members for the work done to advance activities of the centre, which is today a reference centre in the entire CEMAC Sub Region.
    The Shisong Cardiac Centre was officially inaugurated by Cameroon’s Minister of Health, Andre Mama Fouda, on November 2009.

More collaborators seeking collaboration with Shisong Cardiac Center
    More associations, institutions and organizations are knocking the doors of the Shisong Cardiac Centre soliciting for collaboration in different aspects and areas where the centre has over the years proven to be more competent.
    The latest is the Cameroon Paediatric Association, SOCAPED. A three man delegation from the association was at the Cardiac Centre recently to express their wish for collaboration regarding paediatric cardiac health.
    The members of the team comprised Prof. Tchokoteu Pierre-Fernand who is the President, Dr Ndenbe Paul, the Secretary General and Dr David Chelo.
This visit came a few days after the Follow-up Committee charged with the implementation of a Memorandum of Understanding between the MINSANTE and the Tertiary Sisters of Saint Francis, TSSF met on April 23, 2015 to review activities and chart a way forward for the center.
    The President of this Committee Professor Arthur George ESSOMBA assured the Tertiary Sisters of Saint Francis that MINSANTE is very resolved to sustain the collaboration that was formalized between them in December 2010.
    The center has also been working in close collaboration with the Bambini Cardiopatici nel Mondo, Cuore Fratello and the Capuchin Friars of the Province of Lombardia likewise the Archbishop Paul Verdzekov Memorial Heart Foundation.
    Inaugurated in November 19, 2009, the Cardiac Center is equiped with ultra modern medical technologies and brings breakthrough in health services in Cameroon. Some of its services include Cardiac Surgery and ASD Closure, diagnostic and Interventional Catheterisation, Coronary Angiography, Diagnostic Coronarography, Pacemaker double and single chamber.