Talking to The Guardian Post after the
President’s speech, Dr Kingue Thompson Njie appreciated the plan saying “I have
listened to so many reactions to the end of year speech which was made by the
Head of State. A lot of people dwelled on many things and little room has been
given so far to the importance of having Universal health coverage in Cameroon.
I think amongst the good things: amongst the good promises that were made by
the Head of state, that was number one.
On what Universal Health Coverage means, the
Director explained “You see with the Universal Health Coverage one thing that
Cameroonians are going to realize is that the number of preventable deaths is
certainly going to reduce. There are many people who die not because they had
to but because they had to stay at home with their illnesses. Those illnesses
got complicated to a point where Doctors could no longer do anything. They
arrive the hospital late and they don’t even have the means to pay for services
and they die.” Acknowledging that
everyone will die someday, Dr Kingue maintained that many Cameroonians have
died with preventable illnesses.
As to how beneficial such a health plan will
be to Cameroonians, “with Universal health coverage which will improve on
access to healthcare, hospitals, Doctors are going to see people earlier with
their problems, patients will not be required to pay on spot for the services,
everything will be done as fast as it should be done and payments are looked
into later on.” Dr Kingue said.
Noting that hospital has been tagged as
breeding grounds for corruption, the health expert for intimated that the
Universal health coverage plan will be a panacea for the worm that has eaten
deep into Cameroon’s hospital since hospital staff will understand that
patients will no longer carry money on them.
Expressing the wish to see the coverage come
to fulfillment soon, Dr Kingue proposed with the example of the Ghana model
that puts the executors of the programme on a completive environment that
prevents monopoly.
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