The Sangmelima Referral Hospital has brought light and life to the host village.

Bitom is a village in Sangmelima in the Dja and Lobo Division of the South Region. It is situated some 3.5 km from town.  The village is proud to host the Sangmelima Referral Hospital. The pride comes with the hospital’s socio-economic impact.  Bitom villagers before only heard about township yellow cabs from friends or family relations that were privileged to travel out of the village. The story is now different with many of them with businesses in town able to board taxis in front of their doors to town.

The town has opened. Electricity and access to potable water has followed. The road is open and business is flourishing. Petty trading has stalled rural exodus with youths in the area embracing this form of economic activity as a means to survival and self-employment. The difficulty villagers faced before the construction of the hospital has given way to life and light. “It was difficult in those days.  The village was like a forest with very few houses,” Ella Rodrigue, said. The young petty trader said the hospital has come to wipe the tears on their faces. Business might not be booming but is able to feed mouths and families, he observed.

His Majesty, Franky Roger Obame Akono, Third Class Chief of Sangmelima Village 1- Bitom says the SRH is a jewelry that has changed the lives of many of its subjects. The hospital has opened the village to development challenges with some youth of the locality seizing the opportunity. Barbers’ shops and the provision stores and now holding back some of the age group back home. Makeshift stores have found soft spot at the entrance to the hospital. Sure the villagers are exploring avenues and will surely and gradually transform the immediate hospital precincts to a business hub to reflect what obtains in some big hospitals in Yaounde like the General, Central, Teaching and District Hospitals of the city.

Cynthia Bilouga Mbassi on transit in Bitom saw in the area a fertile business ground. Apart from assisting her relatives, she kept focus on a provision store. Other villagers are satisfying clients, most of whom patients and staff of the hospital with basic commodities. It is a win-win exercise by so doing, affirmed clients and vendors. The village is now a hot cake for investors with many of them knocking at doors every day for the acquisition of land. “Some six cabinet ministers have already paid for pieces of land in this village,” disclosed His Majesty Obame.

The hospital has limited medical evacuations. Elderly persons of the Bitom who hitherto travelled to Yaounde and Douala for medical attention have found solace at their door steps.  “Many of them suffer rheumatism and severe bone problems,” and like Marion Meze’e, the hospital has given them smiles. Some of my subjects travelled out of town for CT scanning,” said His Majesty Obame. The cost of transportation and medical attention was not at the reach of all affected families. Some of them underwent scanning exercises at more than FCFA 100,000 in hospitals in Yaounde and Douala.

The same medical exercises are carried in the SRH at give-away prices- scanning for example at FCFA 60,000. This, among other treatment offered by the hospital, has changed the lives of many villagers of Bitom, going by its traditional ruler. The traditional ruler recalled how it sounded like flattery when news of the project first came. It was like a dream when the project took. The timeframe almost stalled our hopes. Attitudes gradually changed when the edifice was completed and equipment installed. The entire village almost went into ecstasy when consultation started. “Thank you President, Paul Biya for this magnificent health structure. It has changed our lives,” His Majesty Obame, his subjects, visitors and patients to the Sangmelima Referral Hospital echoed.