{UAH} Allan/Pojim/WBK: JPM and the task of revamping the health sector - News | The Citizen

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JPM and the task of revamping the health sector - News

Dar es Salaam. President John Magufuli's surprise visit to Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) may have brought positive change at the facility, but questions are being asked as to whether it is enough to set in motion the transformation of the country's entire healthcare system.

Patients who initially slept on the floor now have beds and the authorities are trying to fix diagnostic equipment that has been out of order for over three months now.

However, Dr Magufuli's efforts in trying to ensure better health services at MNH have barely scratched the surface of the myriad of challenges the country's health sector has been grappling with for many years.

The Citizen has established that some of the problems – such as patients sleeping on the floor in wards and the frequent breakdown of key diagnostic apparatus – require long-term solutions and perhaps a major overhaul of the country's healthcare system.

"Even if the MRI and CT-scan machines would be repaired and start operating again today, it's obvious they will soon break down yet again because they are overused. The number of patients they serve per day is overwhelming,'' said an MNH doctor, who asked not to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

The move to supply 300 beds to MNH as directed by President Magufuli means that the usual spectacle of patients lying on the floor in wards at Sewahaji Block in MNH is now a thing of the past.

However, the root cause of some patients sleeping on the floor in other departments at MNH has yet to be addressed.

There are also cases of more than three children sharing a bed at MNH's Paediatrics Unit. Since the admitted children have to be under the care of their mothers, the unit is almost always congested.

Being the country's biggest and most important referral hospital, MNH shoulders the burden of poor health services at lower-level health facilities such as municipal referral hospitals in Dar es Salaam and other regional health facilities across the country.

An exclusive report made available to The Citizen by MNH authorities reveals that 30 per cent of patients who report to the hospital are not officially referred to the facility—they don't go with the required referral letters from recognised hospitals.

"Even the 70 per cent of the patients who report to MNH with referral letters come with minor problems that could have been dealt with at lower-level health facilities,'' says the report.

Some public health experts and officials within MNH told The Citizen yesterday that weaknesses at regional health facilities have led to congestion at MNH.

According to the president of the Medical Association of Tanzania (MAT), Dr Billy Haonga, the MNH infrastructure is overstretched by the overwhelming number of patients who lack specialised care at regional hospitals.

"MOI (Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute) is the only centre with specialised care in trauma, orthopaedics and neurosurgery in the country and Dar es Salaam and Coast region residents almost entirely depend on it. If there were other centres in the regions, you wouldn't expect congestion at MNH or MOI,'' he said in an interview with The Citizen yesterday.

Last Thursday, the MNH acting Executive Director, Prof Lawrence Mseru, told reporters in Dar es Salaam that the Intensive Care Unit at MNH was admitting patients far beyond its capacity.

A report issued by the health advocacy NGO Sikika warned about three years ago that the shortage of beds and other medical supplies in the country's health facilities was increasing annually.

According to findings by a Sikika survey, almost all public health facilities had bed occupancy rates of above 100 per cent, meaning that hospitals were admitting more patients than their capacities.

Earlier this year, MPs from both CCM and the opposition, voiced their concern about the state of referral hospitals such as Mwananyamala, Amana and Temeke, which are in Dar es Salaam.

During debate on the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare's 2015/16 budget, lawmakers criticised what they said was the government's failure to ensure public hospitals had adequate medicines and other medical supplies.

They said some referral hospitals did not deserve the status.

JPM and the task of revamping the health sector - News | The Citizen

http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/Health--It-s-a-good-start-by-JPM--but---/-/1840340/2978394/-/twaxfdz/-/index.html

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