Maternal health professor calls for accountability among medical staff

Dar es Salaam. One of the country’s senior professors in maternal health, Siriel Massawe has called for improved accountability among medical staff as they go about providing health services.

Prof Massawe was speaking during a workshop organised by the Aga Khan Univereity (AKU) in collaboration with Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Science (Muhas), with the aim of discussing the state of women’s health in the East Africa Community.

She said there is a pressing need for all medical staff in the field of Obstetrics and Gynaecology to focus on improving their skills to ensure delivery of quality health services for women around the country. This, she noted, would in-turn help improve living standards of women and their families.

However, she also noted that citizens have a responsibility of making sure they fully utilise health centres located near their homes for checking their health instead of waiting until they are in a state of emergency.

She praised AKU for coming up with an initiative that helped stakeholders to discuss women-related challenges and strategies to mitigate them.

“...it is important for other universities to emulate Agakhan University. I know that Muhas has also been organizing workshops every year that bring together stakeholders to discuss this issues and propose ways of overcoming them,” she noted.

A public health expert from AKU, Dr Kahabi Isangula said he would find ways of disseminating the knowledge he obtained from the workshop to health workers working in rural parts of the country.