GOVERNMENT plans to table a Bill in Parliament next year that would require graduate doctors to work at government health facilities for at least two years.
Another Bill slated for 2017 will
mandate all Tanzanians to join the National Health Insurance Scheme
(NHIF) and recognize legally all special groups who are supposed to
receive health services for free.
Deputy Minister for Health, Community
Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr Hamis Kigwangalla, said
his office plans to table a Bill in Parliament in February. He was
briefing journalists on achievements recorded in the health sector in
one year of the 5th Phase Government and giving rundown of plans to
improve the sector for next year.
“Once the law sails through it will bring a lot of positive change in the health sector.
The law will provide a mandatory
national service period and every graduate doctor will be required to
work in any government health facility for a period of two years,” he
explained. Other plans for 2017 include preparing another Bill that will
mandate all Tanzanians to join the NHIF.
In a move to encourage Tanzanians to
join the scheme, the government has managed to enroll all the elderly in
the country, whose figure is estimated to be about 2.5 million,” he
explained.
“The enrollment exercise of the elderly
into the scheme is still going on in other councils, but we are planning
to make this a legal requirement for everyone to enroll and not just a
government directive as it is the case.”
The Bill, according to Dr Kigwangalla,
will identify groups that will need to be enrolled in the national
health scheme under the supervision of respective councils.
Speaking on the special groups that are
meant to receive free health services in all government health
facilities, Dr Kigwangalla said the law in the offing will recognize the
groups and ensure they receive free health services.
He said currently these special groups
do not receive the services that they deserve, noting that although they
are able to receive free diagnostics, most of them are forced to buy
medication from their own pockets. The elderly aged 60 years and above,
Children under-five years and people suffering from cancer, blood
pressure, diabetes and asthma are supposed to receive free health
services in all government hospitals according to health policies.
“This directive is only recognized in
policies but there is now law...therefore once we have on in place we
will be able to enforce it and make sure these special groups truly
receive free health services,” he stressed.
Other plans for the second year of the
first term of the Fifth Phase Government, according to Dr Kigwangalla,
include improving health services, especially ensuring that there are
improved health services in rural areas.
The plans include increasing health
centres from the current 489 to 1,000 which will also be providing
emergency surgeries services to women giving birth and people with
conditions that require emergency operations. Out of the current 489
health centers only 113 provide surgery services, the deputy minister
added.
“For next year, my ministry has directed
regions and district to identify one health center and include it in
the next year’s national budget which will bring the total of health
centers to 700,” he noted.
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