Isangele Health Center In Need Of Committed Personnel To Curb Infant And Maternal Mortality

One Of The Dead Babies Being Laid To Rest In Isangele 

By Raymond Dingana

Expectant mothers in Isangele Sub Division of the Bakassi Peninsula, South West Region of Cameroon are going through tough times as those recruited and paid to save lives in the Isangele Health Center have not been up to date with their activities.

This has had a heavy toll on patients especially pregnant women who have seen their babies die simple because the competent hands are always irregular at work.

The most recent case happened on August 23,2023 when life was snuffed out of some new born babies because those to ensure they survive were absent from their duty post at the time their pregnant mothers got to the hospital. The nurse that was present in the health centre at that time confessed she wasn’t fit to handle such situations.

As indicated in an audio clip that has gone viral on the social media coming from a Rev. Father in Isangele, the situation is in dire need of attention else it could get out of hand. 

“We had three cases of pregnant women who couldn’t be assisted due to the absence of the personnel in the hospital. Two ladies lost their babies breaking August 23 while one was successfully put to birth. The other lady whose placenta could not come out was taken to Nigeria, I just pray that she survives it” Said the priest

 

He continued 

“All three cases were assisted by one Mami Bertha in Orum. I was asking the mayor why they can’t recruit women like that to be helping pregnant women with medical care.”

The man of God also regretted why people continue receiving salaries for little or no work done.

“If we keep on allowing people to collect their salaries when they don’t care about our wellbeing. We are bound by the vertue of our profession to be permanently present at our jobsites. What happened to those women could happen to any of us. It’s really painful to watch babies dying in a place like Isangele which is suffering from low population,yet babies are dying out of negligence.”

He has invited the administration of the South West Region to look into the situation and see in to that order reigns in Isangele Health District so that the lives of unborn babies can be preserved.

Why Workers Shy Away From Isangele And Other Areas In Cameroon

Before the coming of the Anglophone Crisis, many persons sent to work in the oil rich Bakassi Peninsula of Cameroon have always not welcomed the deployment. The crisis had only compounded the whole situation.

To them, the area is enclaved and lacks basic amenities like electricity, portable water, road infrastructure, health services amongst others making it difficult to live and work there.

Despite not always at their duty posts, they still collect their salaries unperturbed, something that doesn’t sit in well with the authorities.

With the Isangele Health District suffering because workers have decided to stay away, the Ministry of Public Health is exhorted to intervene before the health institution is transformed in to a graveyard for mothers and new born babies.