By The citizen
In Summary
Failure to ensure that hospitals and clinics are
adequately stocked with drugs and other medical requirements makes a
mockery of the government’s efforts to provide quality and affordable
healthcare to the people.
The vast majority of public health facilities
across the country are in a sorry state, and this should be cause for
national concern. It is well nigh impossible to have a productive nation
without a healthy population.
The government continues to allocate substantive
resources to the public health sector, but those charged with ensuring
that it is prudently run have been a big letdown. Those hit hardest by
this state of affairs are poor Tanzanians who cannot afford treatment at
private hospitals.
The situation at district hospitals, which
perpetually lack essential drugs and equipment, is reflective of the
ailing state of public health facilities across Tanzania.
Failure to ensure that hospitals and clinics are
adequately stocked with drugs and other medical requirements makes a
mockery of the government’s efforts to provide quality and affordable
healthcare to the people.
This inadequacy explains why Tanzania has been
struggling in its endeavour to attain the Millennium Development Goals
on child mortality, maternal health and HIV/Aids, malaria and other
diseases by the 2015 deadline. If drugs and equipment reach the public
hospitals on time, but are stolen by crooked staff that is another
issue. But the fact is that most government health facilities,
particularly in the rural areas, constantly face acute shortages of
medical supplies due to mismanagement.\
It is no surprise then that district hospitals
occasionally have to buy drugs from private pharmacies. It is now common
for patients visiting public hospitals, even in urban areas, to be
asked to buy drugs elsewhere at prices beyond the reach of most of them.
Many patients return home with nothing more than their prescriptions,
which they keep for several days until they raise enough money to buy
drugs.
This situation must not be allowed to continue. Access to quality and affordable healthcare is something all Tanzanians deserve.
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