Evaluation of radiotherapy facilities in Cameroon: case of the general hospital of Yaounde; how good are we?

ABSTRACT The increase in cancer incidence has led to an alarming increase in mortality rate worldwide, Africa and Cameroon especially as such necessitates the assessment and establishment of improved radiotherapy facilities for a better well-being and increase life expectancy. We carried out a retrospective, transversal, and quality study of facilities during a period of 29 years in the General Hospital of Yaoundé (GHY) using questionnaires and data sheets related to External Beam Radiotherapy and Brachytherapy. We used Epi Info software to analyze the data. Our results show that no radiotherapy facility from the creation of the GHY until 2017 ever attained the normative score of 100%. The indicator related to the staff had 15 a normative score of 80.84%, equipment 18.18% and infrastructure 75%. The most represented staff specialty was radiotherapy technicians (RTTs) with 42.86%, each of the following were just 14.29%, radiation oncologists (RO), medical physicists (MP), and engineer. The staff was fairly knowledgeable on the major types of cancer, main causes and treatment methods. 28.58% of them had a mastery of radiotherapy, 28.57% knew the essential equipment needed for a brachytherapy unit and 46.67% for an external beam therapy. This calls for great need to improve radiotherapy facilities