Patients complain the sale of coffins at hospital entrances depressing, scary

By Shanta Sih

At almost every entrance to hospitals in Cameroon, coffin shops can be seen. This practice might be ignored by some but an increasing number of patients say this is depressing and should no longer be accepted.

At the Laquintinie hospital in Douala, patients have asked the present hospital director to reduce or stop shops from selling coffins, dresses and flowers meant for corpses at this location.

“Funeral Merchants are the first people and images you see immediately you step foot into hospital premises. The general hospital Buea is same, Yaounde is same and Douala . How can we not get scared after seeing such from a sick bed. It’s like it’s waiting for you right there which really brings much depression,” a patient at the Douala Laquintinie hospital says.

The image according to some really saddens their hearts and looks like the coffin merchants are praying for patients to die so they can sell.

“To me these things are supposed to be hidden and not just exposed because it plays with the minds of patients psychologically even to us who visit patients and in the days of our parents, you only had to place an order for a coffin to be made when you lost someone,” Evelyn Ndifor recalls.

Others have a positive view and to them it is appropriate to sell funeral elements around the hospital in order not to stress friends and loved ones by forcing them to cover long distances just to purchase these items in the midst of their pain.

It should be noted that 6 years ago, the former director of Laquintinie hospital Prof. Njock had stopped the sales of coffins at the hospital entrance as he noted that it was not and is not good for the psychology of a patient .