300 dialysis patients staged a strike action in front of the Yaounde General Hospital this week. It was the second strike action in the country after that of Bamenda some months ago. The patients revealed that only 7 out of the 15 available haemodialysis machines were operational in the hospital. The two weekly sessions per dialysis patient can no longer be assured by the management of the hospital. To be sure, the machines are outdated, dysfunctional, dusty and dirty. Biya is indeed running a country where no one takes responsibility, no one apologizes, and no one resigns.

In reality, if we examine the budget of Cameroon particularly for the 2015 fiscal year, needless to mention how much President Biya spends a day in the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva, we will discover that the CPDM regime has been a complete mess and Biya-a successful failure. We now know that there are ongoing subsidies granted to the haemodialysis centres in public hospitals in the country. To be accurate more than five billion FCFA is given to all these centres annually.

Our chief intelligence officer in Yaounde revealed that for the 2016 financial year, the haemodialysis centre at the University Teaching Hospital in Yaounde received 400 million FCFA; those of Bafoussam, Bertoua, Ebolowa, N’gaoundéré, were paid 200 million FCFA each and those of Buea, Bamenda, Garoua and Maroua respectively had 300 million FCFA.  The haemodialysis centre in the Douala General Hospital received 1.4 billion FCFA and the Chantal Biya International Centre was paid 1.96 billion FCFA. These amounts have been allocated annually for the operation of haemodialysis centres in the country.

This begs the question: Who are those managing credits sent to these centres by government? We are also tempted to ask if the Ministry of Public Health actually makes these grants available to these hospital units. A recent report published by the Cameroon Concord News Group noted that the haemodialysis centres are understaffed and the work force demoralized working in bizarre conditions with very low wages.

The only thing you can find exciting at the Ministry of Public Health in Yaounde are the photos of all former ministers appointed to head the ministry right from the Ahidjo era till date. The delay in sacking Minister Andre Mama Fouda has been blamed on the lack of space on the entrance to the building on which to place his own photo. Time is running out for  dialysis patients and the morally bankrupt CPDM regime is simply watching.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai