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Muhimbili to be the’best hospital in the E.A. region’
2006-02-23 07:00:30
By Yussuf Kajenje
The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to be the biggest health hazard in Sub Saharan Africa, with countries like Tanzania facing a big challenge.
The availability of life prolonging drugs for HIV/AIDS is a new challenge to an already overstretched health infrastructure, calling for urgent modernization.
Muhimbili National Hospital is a case in point. Being the national teaching and referral hospital, it faces daunting challenges in providing quality services, and not only to HIV/AIDS patients. Surely, Muhimbili is taking a new look.
In an exclusive interview held recently with the Muhimbili National Hospital Chief Executive Officer, Dr. David Tregoning, it became evident that clear signs of improvement are evident at Muhimbili, bringing new hope to all who depend on the hospital for health services.
Dr.Tregoning says in the past two years there have been concerted efforts to make the hospital one of the best of its kind in the region.
Dr. Tregoning says a number of initiatives have been taken to improve services to the patients. He sites some of the measures as the restructuring and refurbishment of the hospital buildings that have gone hand in hand with the setting up of sound management at all levels.
’’This has been done in partnership with the government and other stakeholders in the health sector such as the US based Abbott Fund working through the Axios Foundation.
’’The second measure taken was that of ensuring the financial stability of the hospital.
’’There were too many loopholes for fraud and other forms of corruption at Muhimbili two years ago,’’ says Tregoning.
He says the problem has largely been eliminated by having well trained personnel and stronger systems.
’’We have hired qualified accountants, financial staff and auditors. Now the financial position of Muhimbili is good.’’
Truly, the well- trained personnel have yielded positive results in Muhimbili. As Dr. Kenneth Lema, the AXIOS Foundation Country Director puts it: ’’The hospital’s financial position has been stabilized, with income such as that realized from the fast track system, increasing tremendously.’’
Dr. Lema says that the government is working hard to ensure it provides better services to its citizens. ’’However, the other stakeholders or partners in development have a duty to complement the government’s efforts so that more Tanzanians can access quality health care.’’
He says the amount of funds from the government directed towards the health sector, has been increasing in a promising way over the last few years.
’’Last year the government set aside about Tsh 14 billion, while in the past it used to provide only 4 to 5 billion shillings. That is a good step forward.’’
He says it is due to that fact, that the AXIOS Foundation, with funding from Abbott Laboratories, has been working in collaboration with the government to improve the infrastructure at the hospital.
’’We have spent over 25 million US Dollars (about Tsh. 26 Billion) to improve services at Muhimbili in the past 3 years.’’
Dr. Lema says apart from supporting the hospital in different ways, another focus by Axios Foundation is to turn Muhimbili into a center of excellence for HIV care, not only in the country, but also in the whole region.
’’With highly improved infrastructure, modern state of the art equipment at the Central Pathology Laboratory (CPL), the new Out Patient Department (OPD) building, training of staff, improvement in teaching curricula and good management structures, the provision of best services can no longer be a dream, but a reality,’’ says Dr. Lema.
Commenting on the new developments at Muhimbili Hospital, Dr. Praxeda Ogweyo, who works at the CPL says new sophisticated machines used there nowadays have simplified their tasks.
’’A patient does not need to wait for results for such a long time as was the case in the past. In addition to that, a patient does not need to go to other hospitals for checkups, everything can be done here at Muhimbili.’’
However, Dr. Ogweyo says for some times there has been a shortage of blood at the hospital’s Blood Bank.
’’The number of blood donors has decreased dramatically. Many fear to donate blood because they fear that their HIV status will be revealed to them before they are prepared.’’
Dr. Ogweyo says people should not fear because a donor is never told whether or not his/her blood is infected with HIV.
’’Normally, the donated blood is screened for HIV in their absence, and there is no way that the blood donor can become aware of the outcome after the screening of the donated blood.’’
Generally, positive and long awaited changes are taking place at Muhimbili. However, there are still some challenges needing to be faced.
One of the problems as Dr. Tregoning put in, is that of water shortage. As is the case in so many parts of Dar es Salaam, the national hospital has also been facing the critical problem of water shortage.
’’We have addressed the problem by drilling wells. So far we have commissioned five new wells which provide half of our water needs.
The quality of water from the wells is quite good. Earlier, when we dug a well, the salt content was high, but now it has dropped,’’ says Dr. Tregoning.
He says the water distribution from the five wells is connected to the main water system of the hospital.
However, another challenge is how to store the water. ’’We need to put in place new storage facilities so that our water can be stored. Two new storage facilities are to be built in the hospital premises this year,’’ says Dr. Tregoning.
Dr. Tregoning says the African Development Bank (ADB), and the hospital itself through the hospital fund, would fund the construction of the two storage facilities that will reduce the problem of water shortage .
The Muhimbili CEO says the bids have been already received, and the contract would be awarded in the near future.
Another problem that affects the good delivery of services at Muhimbili Hospital is the unstable power supply.
’’We are improving standby generators. All our emergency facilities such as the theatres are connected to the generators.
By the end of this year all the generators to be used must be automatic,’’ says Dr. Tregoning.
However, the cost of operating the generators is quite high because of the constantly increasing price of diesel.
Dr. Tregoning thanks the government for agreeing to pay the debts of the hospital totaling Sh.5 billion. The debts have been taken ’’That is a most welcome relief.’’
Despite the problems, Dr. Tregoning aims high. ’’Our biggest challenge remains the same; that is to improve quality of care for the patients. Our goal is to offer them good services and care.’’
Dr. Tregoning says that in order to increase efficiency, the hospital has continuing training programmes. ’’We had training for the nurses, and this year we will have the same for the doctors.’’
’’We have to ensure doctors are fully trained so that they can offer good quality services to patients. We have 120 specialists, 65 registrars and residents, and 48 interns.
That is our requirement, and we are fully staffed,’’ says Dr. Tregoning.
Dr. Tregoning says the plan is to complete the construction and the refurbishment of all the buildings this year.
As has been always the case, the aim is to achieve the nation’s goal of providing Tanzanians with best quality health services.
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