Cameroon, Africa
I will be working at Banso Baptist Hospital, located in Kumbo, Cameroon.
Kumbo is in the Northwest Province in the English-speaking part of the country.
Facility
Banso Baptist Hospital is a full-service hospital with a daily census of 250-300 patients. Outpatient services include the entire range of family medicine, including prenatal care and well-child care. 4,000 outpatients are seen monthly, during which the hospital hosts 80-100 deliveries. Mbingo Hospital, affiliated with Banso, has a similar inpatient census, and hosts 50 deliveries monthly.
Banso and Mbingo hospitals are part of a health network that includes 23 health centers, a nursing school, and a village health worker training program. Banso and Mbingo hospitals are part of the Pan-African Surgical residency.
Banso and Mbingo hospitals host an aggressive HIV program, headquartered in the city of Bamenda, lead by Dennis Palmer MD, and funded by the CDC, USAID and Gates Foundation. Pregnant women are screened for HIV and appropriately treated at the time of delivery to prevent transmission to their newborns. This program is known by the acronym PMTCT (Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission). Additionally, 500 HIV positive patients are receiving outpatient medical management of their disease through the HIV clinics at Banso and Mbingo hospitals, and at associated health centers.
Website For additional pictures of Banso and Mbingo Baptist Hospitals, and the surrounding area, please visit http://www.spotlightoncameroon.org
Patients Most patients coming to Banso and Mbingo are traditional Africans, who make a living through farming. Most have very low income, and many have already sought assistance from a local healer before coming for medical care. A very large number of children are brought to Banso and Mbingo.
Medical Staff Banso Baptist Hospital is staffed by two American physicians, an internist and a surgeon. Mbingo Hospital has two additional American physicians, a surgeon and a family physician. Each hospital is also served by 8-10 Cameroonian physicians, two of whom are ophthalmologists.
I will be working in Banso Baptist Hospital under the supervision of attending physicians, rotating through the adult, surgical, pediatric and obstetric wards of the hospital. I will be staying at a guest house (dorm-roomish, I think) near the hospital.