“CMC Will Fund 10 Youth-led Clinics Annually

The Cameroon Medical Council Session held in Bertoua. What were the key findings? The main priority when the Council travels is to listen to regional grievances. We discovered a glaring lack of medical specialists in the Eastern Region representing a quarter of the national territory. There are only 31 specialists for the entire region. Essential specialties, including pediatrics, are entirely missing in certain divisions. The WHO calculates medical coverage ratios strictly by population size, completely ignoring geographic surface area. In the East, settlements are highly scattered. A village might have only 200 inhabitants but sit 800 kilometers from Bertoua, with the nearest pediatrician 400 kilometers away. We must create a medical grid that factors in distance rather than just population. Reports suggest 80% of young doctors are unemployed. Is this accurate? It is roughly between 60% and 70%. For the past five years, the State; the primary employer - has halted recruitment due to IMF restructuring restrictions. Meanwhile, Cameroon trains about 750 doctors annually, and another 200 to 250 return from abroad. This injects nearly 1,000 doctors into the market each year. The private sector cannot absorb them all, leading to a massive brain drain to Europe, Canada, and the US. This creates a dangerous risk of a future medical shortage as older doctors retire with no one to replace them. How does the Council intend to support the integration of these young doctors? We are launching a pilot study to support one young doctor in setting up a private practice in each of the ten regions every year. Since doctors are not trained in entrepreneurship, the Council will secure bank credits, supervise their management, and implement a repayment schedule. We estimate a startup budget of 5 to 7 mil...