THE government has unveiled ambitious strategies to ensure improved and smooth provision of health services in Mwanza and entire Lake Zone Regions, which include the purchase of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) at Bugando Medical Centre (BMC).
She made the commitment while gracing the commissioning of a new CT scan machine worth 1.5bn/- at the Zonal referral hospital, re-introducing the crucial diagnostic services which remained absent for the past five years due to different circumstances.
According to the Minister, the government was committed and determined to offer super specialised health services across the country, adding that the CT scan, envisaged MRI services and Mwanza Heart Institute was part of such strategies.
“We have so many tangible actions towards bringing quality services to the community and my call is for all zonal health facilities like this one to make sure they offer super specialised services to patients,” she said.
Ms Mwalimu said if all goes well, the MRI machines will be procured by December, this year, which will add more value in the diagnostic services as well as relieving patients from incurring costs travelling to other referral hospitals for the same. She announced another relief where from now, charges for CT scan services will be reduced to between 150,000/- and 250,000/- down from 300,000 charged by other private hospitals per single investigation.
Ultimately, the Minister maintained that there will be no need of referring patients overseas for specialised care that could as well be made available locally, with the referral arrangement currently used to benefit few middle men. “There are middle men benefiting from these referrals of patients by pocketing 10 per cent of the total charges per each referred patient. This will not be entertained any more,” she said.
Earlier, the representative of the BMC Board, Bishop Flavian Kassala, challenged the government to work hard in mobilising the people to join health insurance schemes, since without insurance it will be difficult for a common man to afford paying for facilities like CT scan. He said BMC will keep on providing quality care for patients regardless of their financial status, including those suffering from complicated ailments like cancer.
Bishop Kassala commended the collaborations between the government and players in the private sector for ensuring timely and quality health care, calling for the spirit to be maintained for the good of the patients and the poor community. “We are happy for the servicesoffered so far, but we are also noting sharp differences in the quality between the facilities under National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and others. This, therefore, makes it vital for every member of the population to join the medical insurance scheme,” the Bishop noted.
Meanwhile, the Medical Stores Department (MSD) of Tanzania mainland has inked a deal to supply medical supplies to Zanzibar, an agreement that will see the Islands improve its pharmacy chain, opening the door for poor people to enjoy betterquality services in public hospitals. “This is a big achievement for Zanzibar,” Ministry of Health Principal Secretary (PS), Ms Asha Ali Abdalla said after the signing of the agreement at the Ministry of Health functions hall, as the MSD Director General, Mr Laurean Rugambwa Bwanakunu said, “We promise not to let you down as per contract.
” The attendees at the signing ceremony included senior staff from MSD in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar Ministry of Health officials. The PS say that a deal for medical supplies was among the ongoing reforms in the health sector. Ms Abdalla said her office had challenges in accessing medicines and medical equipment, spending a lot of money in procurement.
“We expect this deal has ended our problem and we will now have reliable supply,” she said. Specific financial terms of the deal were not disclosed; however, the PS said the procurement will be quarterly (quarter is a three-month period on a company’s financial calendar).
The current budget for medical supplies is 7bn/- and President Ali Mohamed Shein has promised to increase it to about 12bn/-. Mr Bwanakunu commended Zanzibar authorities for the deal, saying MSD is committed to implement the agreement, appealing to Tanzanians to invest in pharmaceutical industry to minimise importation of medical supplies.
“We have contracts with 110 medical supplies companies of which only ten are local. So huge amount of 1.4tr/- allocated for the medical supplies goes to foreign companies instead of benefiting home companies,” the MSD boss said. He added that even writing pens are imported from abroad, advising Tanzanians to open pharmaceutical factories with at least one in Zanzibar, in support of President John Magufuli’s campaign for industrialisation.
During the signing ceremony for the medical equipment supply, Mr Bwanakunu said MSD has been undergoing workable reforms winning trust locally and internationally and it has also entered into supply partnership with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) office
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