Dr Hussein Mwinyi

The government plans to review salaries for Assistance Dental Officers (ADOs) and Assistance Medical Officer (AMOs) to be consistent with the duties they perform, the National Assembly was told yesterday.

The Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Hussein Mwinyi disclosed this when responding to a supplementary question by Nkasi South MP Desderius Mipata, who wanted to know measures taken by the government to differentiate salaries between AMOs and ADOs against Medical Doctors (MDs) whose tasks are similar but with a huge difference in salary.

The legislator said, due to the gap, performance of AMOs and ADOs in health centres have been affected, fueling disputes with the government.

“When will the government consider and recognise activities of this group as compared to MDs?” he asked.

The minister acknowledged the salary differences between AMOs, ADOs and MDs despite the fact that they performed similar tasks.

“There is a need to improve remunerations for ADOs and AMOs to improve performance….we need to boost their salaries to reflect their workload,” he said.

Mwinyi praised efforts and activities performed by ADOs and AMOs, especially in rural areas, in saving lives of Tanzanians.

In another development, Deputy Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Seif Rashidi told the house that the government is implementing different initiatives to get the needed health officers.

Among the initiatives, the deputy said was to expand the Catholic Church owned college, St Bakhita to enroll more students specialising in health studies.

He said, the government in partnership with the Global Fund will build four classrooms, with capacity to accommodate 400 students, laboratory and dormitories that can take 500 students.

“The expansion scheme includes the construction of wards, houses for 6 staffs, and furniture,” he added.