Quality Assurance in Healthcare Delivery: CBC Health Services’ Priority
Staff drawn from the Baptist Training School for Health Personnel (BTSHP), Baptist Institute for Health Sciences (BIHS) and Baptist School for Public Health (BSPH) have been drilled on Quality Assurance practices and systems. This was in a two-day training from January 29–30, 2022, at the CBC Resource Centre in Mvan, Yaounde, whose goal was to ensure that quality rehabilitation services are delivered in these institutions at all levels.
The training was borne from the background of ensuring quality in disability-designed Courses in these institutions where Courses are offered in Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR), Physiotherapy (PT), and Rehabilitation Technicians.
Facilitators of the training were from the Mildmay Institute of Health Sciences in Uganda. The three-man team was constituted to balance different skills needed for these Courses. These included Quality Auditing and Training with Belinda; skills in Community Based Rehabilitation and Implementation from Willy Kamya, a Specialist in Design of Courses for Community Development and Rehabilitation; and skills in Training in Disability and Rehabilitation from Carolyne Maholo, a Disability and Rehabilitation lecturer at a Ugandan public University.
These courses offered at the BTSHP Banso, the BIHS Mbingo, and the BSPH Mutengene have been designed to meet the growing need of children, youths, and adults with disabilities in Cameroon, where there is a huge crisis in rehabilitative health services such as Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, and Community-Based Rehabilitation.
According to the World Confederation of Physiotherapy (WCPT) 2019 Report, an estimated 250 physiotherapists exist in Cameroon, representing an extremely low rate of 0.10 physiotherapists per 10,000 populations. This compromises access to quality PT services for those in need, especially children, youths, and adults with impairment, whereas, it is demonstrated that quality rehabilitation significantly improves the quality of life for persons with disabilities. As a whole, Cameroon currently experiences an insufficient supply of trained personnel as well as limited training opportunities. While there is low coverage of PT and CBR services due to inadequately trained providers, OT services are completely unavailable.
To address this gap, The CBC Health Services with support from a Dutch-based organization, AFAS Foundation via its longstanding partner the Liliane Fonds (LF) is currently implementing the Rehabilitation Compass for Inclusion (RCI) project in Cameroon, with these Courses to close these gaps.
Quality Assurance Training strives to ensure that the best is implemented in these three novel cadres. After the tour of the schools where the courses are offered, the Ugandan team expressed satisfaction with the infrastructure, human resources, and the implementation of quality assurance services. Their wish is to have these activities effectively structured for consistency and sustainability.
The visit also comprised of assessments of sites, review of available documents, in addition to the Course on Quality Assurance to mentor and build the capacity of the teams to appreciate the quality requirements. It is worth noting that the training was based on International Quality Standards for Quality Assurance and Education.