The structure is coming to add to the service quality the hospital already boosts of.

Among the many facelifts the Logbaba District Hospital (Douala III Subdivision) is experiencing is the construction and equipping of a modern consultation ward. The new structure which cost FCFA 7 million consists of three rooms and an external waiting room and is constructed over a surface area of 70 metres square over a period of two months.

Uniquely constructed with the hospital’s funds with no external funding, nor assistance from government, the ward has come to confirm the success of the hospital’s recent reforms to improve service organisation and spur quality treatment with the goal of satisfying patients. To be used for consultations, the ward is furnished with both medical and office equipment such as tables, chairs, examination tables, etc by the Council of Douala III. The structure was inaugurated Friday, April 22, by the Littoral Regional Delegate of Public Health, Martin Yamba Beyas, who represented the Minister of Public Health.

The inauguration crowned the third edition of the hospital’s Open Doors Day, which rounded up that same day. Hospital Director Soffeu Charles said the third edition was a kind of evaluation of the 2011 Vision to offer efficient treatment to patients, one that ensures the best satisfaction of their need and expectation through a series of continuous quality improvement measures. The evaluation showed an increase in consultations. He revealed that 98 per cent of patients currently admitted in the hospital are satisfied. He also disclosed: “There is also an external body which made a positive appreciation of what we are doing here. It evaluated us in 2010 at 37 per cent satisfaction rate, in 2013 we increased to 67 per cent and in 2015 we rose to 84.7 per cent. This shows we can improve on our performance quality by changing our habits, organisation, and culture. Before this vision the culture was a culture of corruption and laziness, but now we have a new culture which is a culture centred on service for the satisfaction of patients.”

An analysis done in May 2011 showed a degradation of infrastructures and equipment of the hospital, patients were unsatisfied with treatment and services rendered them by hospital personnel, non-motivation of workers, and especially the deterioration of relations between health workers and patients, deviant behaviours on the part of workers, as well as breach of confidence between patients and the hospital which led to a reduction in number of patients visiting the hospital. The situation was further aggravated by budgetary challenges such as lack of government subsidies.