Located in Shisong, Kumbo, in Bui Division of the North West Region, the centre offers affordable and qualitative cardiovascular treatment.
The Shisong Cardiac Centre, which rises to expectation with services that provide hope for the hopeless, could be summed up as a blessing for many suffering from cardiovascular diseases in the Central African Sub-region and beyond. The centre became Cameroon’s national reference facility in cardiovascular disease control and management following President Paul Biya’s decision of November 19, 2009.
The birth of the Cardiac Centre is also traced to 2002 when the Tertiary Sisters of Saintt Francis (TSSF) and two Italian charitable organisations (Bambini Cardiopaticinel Mondo and Cuore Fratello) joined the vision. Apart from them, Don Claudio Maggioni, an Italian Priest, takes credit as the origin of the Cardiac Centre dream. It was all about the training of pioneer personnel by Bambibi Cardiopaticinel Mondo and the supply of medical consumables. Coure Fratello handled sponsorship of underprivileged patients; first in Milan and then, on-the-spot in Shisong.
Six years after it went operational, the Shisong Cardiac Centre excels in Open Heart Surgeries, with an intensive care unit equipped to give full attention and monitoring that ensures normal recovery of patients after surgery. There are also Pacemaker Implantations on a regular basis and diagnostic and interventional Cardiac Catheterization since 2010. Patients unable to travel to the centre are served through regular outreach consultations while a blood bank carries out sensitisation for blood donation.
Apart from its goal to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular diseases, the Saint Elizabeth Cardiac Centre’s priorities and challenges also feature the exploration of opportunities to ensure the tarring of the three-kilometre stretch of road that links the centre to Kumbo. Efforts are also underway to get funding for drilling boreholes to supplement dwindling water supply and constructing an incinerator for proper waste management. Other challenges are include ensuring regular and low-cost electricity supply and sponsoring needy patients for surgery.
