(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroonian startup E-santé has developed a virtual hospital to bring healthcare to people and make it more accessible. Yesterday September 12, 2022, the company announced it is extending "Clinic Home" to Yaoundé.

The capital becomes the second city, after Douala, to benefit from this innovative service, which aims to democratize home-based medicine (or family doctor) in the country. "Clinic Home" was founded in collaboration with Cameroonian doctors working in public, private, and religious hospitals in the country, as well as doctors from Europe. The offers include in-person consultations at home, remote medical consultations, home laboratory sampling, delivery of medication, home nursing care, and home physiotherapy.

"Let's take the case of a patient who has had a fever and headache for 3 days. He would have to wait 4 hours to be seen by a doctor and wait another 2 hours to have a lab sample taken. And if he is not able to take medication, he would be admitted even if it is not a serious case, or he would have to go to the pharmacies to find all his medication. But with www.clinichome.cm, the patient is seen by a doctor at home in less than 2 hours, the samples are taken at home, and if necessary a nurse is sent to give him his injections. And at the end of the day, the entire prescription is delivered to the patient's home,” explains Dr. Philippe Ohandja, the promoter of E-Santé.

Reduce hospital overcrowding

According to this graduate of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Douala, who also holds a university degree in connected health from the University of Paris Descartes, the launch of this platform comes to solve some problems related to the management of patients in health facilities in Cameroon. Dr. Philippe Ohandja explained that "waiting times in hospitals are increasingly long, sometimes up to 4 hours between the consultation, the sampling for examinations, and the administration of drugs for so-called benign diseases that could have been treated at home; The admission of patients who could have been cared for at home results in a lack of hospital beds for those who really need to be admitted; there is also the prolonged admission of patients suffering from chronic illnesses such as cancer, or of elderly persons with polypathology who could have been cared for at home.

E-santé is a private clinic with premises in Douala. It claims nearly 25,000 visitors on its "Clinic Home" platform in 4 years with more than 1,000 families followed up at home in Douala and Yaoundé, and more than fifty medical and paramedical staff working on the platform.

The vast majority of patients who have trusted the services now have health insurance thanks to the partnership between the startup, insurance companies, and renowned brokers such as Willis Towers Watson. According to good sources, negotiations are underway with Ascoma to identify a better framework for collaboration in line with the processes of this other insurance brokerage operator.

"Being now present in Douala and Yaoundé, we will very soon open the service to all regions of Cameroon and explore growth opportunities in the sub-region," said Dr. Philippe Ohandja.

Written by: Brice R. Mbodiam

Translated from French by Firmine AIZAN