Everyone’s Involvement Needed

The alarming and increasing rate of medical errors resulting to severe casualties including loss of human lives is a major concern in Cameroon. The recent outing by the Cameroon Medical Council, slamming suspension and ban on some medical doctors lends credence to the fact that medical errors are regrettably on the rise in our health facilities. Without belabouring the factors that lead to medical errors, it is important to highlight some critical issues like understaffing, poor training, lack of equipment, low specialist density, and financial barriers, amongst others, as primary factors. Given the magnitude of the consequences of these medical mishaps emanating from poor diagnosis, examinations and observations as well as prescription of drugs, surgical lapses among others, the situation which is life threatening warrants the sincere involvement of all and sundry. Each stakeholder notably the medical doctors, medical practitioners, government, health promoters, patients and the population at large, should be concerned and take appropriate responsibilities at various levels. It goes without saying that the training of medical personnels at various levels should be more rigorous given that it is a delicate corps that deals with human lives. Entry level criteria should be more stringent in order not to open the medical field to any Tom and Harry. Training curriculums in various medical schools, including courses for nurses, midwives and laboratory technicians should also be streamlined and rigorously checked. In short, before anyone is accepted into the medical practice, he/she must meticulously go through the due diligence process. Also, the staffing structure of our health facilities should be considered. The understaffing syndrome entails long working hours for some medical practitioners, leading to fatigue and consequently fatal medical errors. Furthermore, most of our hospitals and health facilities lack equipment let alone state-of-the-art equipment. This is a major cause for concern for both government and private investors in the health sector. Lack of equipment and drugs pushes the use of substandard alternatives which may result to poor diagnosis, dosage and treatment. Sometimes, basic surgical amenities are lack...