Massive facelift, transformation await regional hospitals

PIUS RUGONZIBWA in Mwanza

ALL regional hospitals in the country will soon undergo massive changes in their administrative set up, with the current post of Medical Officer- In-Charge being replaced with that of Hospital Director.

The changes to the 28 hospitals that were recently transferred to the central government are part of

many other reforms announced by the Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, when she visited Mwanza Region, recently.

According to the Minister, the hospitals will receive major facelifts to enable them provide specialised services, with each of them receiving new specialists to fill the gaps and reinforce operations.

The Minister said specialist doctors in those hospitals will now be allowed to conduct private clinics, at the hospitals, instead of leaving for service in private hospitals elsewhere, popularly known as Intra Mural Private Practice (IMPP).

“We are considering this option as part of motivation to specialist doctors, although we will have to carefully study implementation procedures first.

We want to see these hospitals delivering in a different manner from they used to,” said the Minister.

To start with, the Minister highlighted eight crucial areas the hospitals were tasked to tackle, such as improved operations and infrastructure development, citing some as the Emergency Sections, Intensive Care Units (ICU) and Mother and Child Health clinics (MCH).

Ms Mwalimu revealed the introduction of outreach programmes where specialist doctors from Muhimbili National Hospital and Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI) will be conducting regular visits to regional referral hospitals for consultancy and specialised services to patients.

The same arrangement will involve specialists at regional referral hospitals, who will be required to go to district hospitals for the same services, adding that the whole target was making the entities true centres of excellence and not otherwise.

However, Minister Mwalimu cautioned that, “There are some notions that since the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry is far away from your locality, then you will relax and become free to do whatever you want.

No thank you! You will have to report to RAS offices to facilitate smooth operations and I can assure you that there will be no time for relaxation.”

The Minister also said that Sekou Toure Referral Hospital will receive a new CT scanner along with 1.5bn/- for the construction of MCH clinic, while four new specialists including an Orthopaedic Surgeon will be reporting before the end of this year.

Another area of emphasis was staff training and capacity building with the Minister directing all staff members to benefit from the arrangement interchangeably, not only as a motivational drive, but also making sure staff members are offered opportunities to upgrade and sharpen their skills.

The Minister assured the hospital administration and staff members of support and reminded them that President John Magufuli was confident the rearrangement of the regional referral hospitals’ set up and status will bring anticipated outcomes.

Earlier, the Acting Sekou Toure Regional Referral Hospital Medical Officer-In-Charge, Dr Bahati Msaki, said the Minister’s support had come at the right time when the hospital was approaching various stakeholders for different interventions, making it possible for the purchase of CT scan and MRI machines.

She said the facility was facing a number of challenges including congestion at the Out Patient Department, lack of crucial facilities in Maternity Wards and haphazard referral of patients from other hospitals.