Kidney Patients declare State of Emergency on Yaounde General Hospital

Over 100 kidney patients, Monday, July 17, besieged the Yaounde General Hospital, calling on Government to provide them with dialysis machines and other kits.

The machines in the hospital are all dilapidated and can no longer meet the needs of the patients.

The July 17 incident is the third in a series that the patients are staging for their conditions to be ameliorated.

Three weeks ago, the patients crowdedthe General Hospital entrance asking for haemodialysis machines and water oxygenated rooms to evacuate their waste.

Addressing the disgruntled patients during last week strike action, the Minister of Public Health, Andre´ Mama Fouda,assured them that the broken dialysis machines will be repaired and other kits brought in beforetwo weeks.

“Three weeks ago, we were here to claim our rights to life. We complained about the lack of dialysis equipment in our hospital. The Minister promised us that our problem will be solved in a week’s time. But that was a fake promise.

Here we are today because we can nolonger take it,” one of the depressed patients said

Some of the patients have vowed to remain in front of the hospital until their problem is looked into.

The depressed patients carried placards bearing messages such as: why have we been neglected? Save our lives, we just need a life like any normal human being, why are we treated like this?

They bemoaned that kidney patients are dying every day in Cameroon due toGovernment negligence.

“Many of us are dying every day in hospitals due to lack of haemodialysis kits. All we need is life and something must be done to save us,” a 14-year-old girl cried out.

The Yaounde incident is just a microcosm of what is going in the other Regions of Cameroon. In the North West and South West Regions, for example, such occurrences are witnessed on a daily basis.