Summary
· While World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines recommend that one nurse attend to at most six patients a day, in Mwanza and in other peripheral regions, a single nurse attends up to
200 patients a dayMwanza. Mwanza region faces a shortage of 4,000 nurses to
maintain the necessary nurse-to-population ratio as indicated by international
standards, latest statistics indicate.
While World Health Organisation
(WHO) guidelines recommend that one nurse attend to at most six patients a day,
in Mwanza and in other peripheral regions, a single nurse attends up to 200
patients a day.
Speaking during the ‘National Nurses
Day’ event, which was held in Mwanza on May 6, the president of the Tanzania
National Nurses Association (TANNA), Alexander Baluhya, mentioned administrative
councils that have a severe shortage of nurses and midwives in the region, such
as Buchosa and Ukerewe, both of which need more than 4,000 nurses to meet the
requirements.
Mwanza has over 600 private and
public health centres.
“It is common to find health centres
that were supposed to have an average of 30 nurses with less than 10 nurses,”
he said.
“This not only leads to overwork and
fatigue among nurses, but it also reduces efficiency in health care delivery,”
Mr Baluhya added.
He noted that more nurses have moved
to Dar es Salaam, while the periphery regions face serious manpower shortages.
Mr Baluhya urged the government to
prioritise regions that are facing a shortage of health service providers.
“There are some areas where nurses
are forced to work throughout the day. This is against the public service
guidelines,” he said.
Ms Grace Kusaya, the Mwanza region
TANNA chairperson, asked the government to allow nurses to serve patients
without uniforms because some administrative councils in Mwanza Region have
been reluctant to release uniform allowances to nurses.
She hinted that, before power
devolution, the central government was paying every nurse an allowance of
Sh120,000 annually, but now ‘things have changed.’
“The law requires us to wear
uniforms when attending patients, but nurses and midwives are not being paid
allowances as required. This is very disappointing,” said Ms Kusaya.
The Acting Director of Nursing and
Midwifery Services from the Ministry of Health, Mark Ogweyo, who graced the
event, admitted to having received the highlighted concerns and promised to
forward them to the Minister of Health, Ummy Mwalimu.
He also informed participants of the
event that the shortage of health personnel in Mwanza would be partly solved
once the recruitment process for 8,050 health workers is complete.
“I ask you to proceed with serving
patients with the maximum level of professionalism and wisdom. This is the
foundation of your call,” said Mr Ogweyo.
Mwanza regional commissioner Adam
Malima insisted on patients’ privacy.
He said the government will not turn
a blind eye to nurses and midwives who disclose patients’ information.
The national nurses’ day events will
continue to be held until May 12.
Among the activities that are being
held are presentations of research reports on nurses and midwives and
discussions on how to improve the profession.
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