Mloganzila teaching hospital now under MNH

Dar es Salaam. The Muhas Academic Medical Centre, Mloganzila Campus (MAMC) has now been put under the control and management of Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) in a move that comes against a backdrop of the teaching hospital’s management and operational challenges.

Since it was inaugurated by President John Magufuli last year, there have been frantic efforts to ensure that the new state-of-the-art facility is put into full use by patients and gets the right number of medical staff.

This has involved relocating several patients and medical staff from Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) to the new Mloganzila facility, of bed capacity 571, located about 25 kilometres from Dar es Salaam.

However, concerns were raised over whether or not the hospital should remain under the management of Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (Muhas) Muhimbili which falls under the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

President Magufuli has since directed the stakeholders concerned with the running of the new hospital to meet and explore the best management system needed for MAMC’s successful outcome.

In a move that would be seen as responding to the directive issued by the president and concerns raised by some stakeholders, Muhas yesterday issued an announcement to all medical staff saying that Mloganzila was now under the management of MNH.

According to the announcement, the changes were effective from October 3 but Muhas assured all staff and patients that the changes would not affect staff contracts and patients’ services.

Writing in The Citizen last year, shortly after the inauguration of the new teaching hospital, a retired professor who formerly taught at Muhas, Prof Zulfiqarali Premji cautioned about the decision to keep the Mloganzila under the management of the university.

Prof Premji, in his Thinking Aloud column, explained the complexities of running a hospital under an institution that did not have the experienced staff in hospital management.

“Currently, Mlongazila is under Muhas and the Education ministry – and is headed by a deputy vice-chancellor. To manage Mlongazila with part-time leadership – and perhaps with very little or no experience of how to manage hospitals – is to invite failure,” warned the professor in his article titled “Operationalisation of Mlonganzila Hospital a major challenge”.

“What Mlongazila needs is an autonomous committee that will have its own CEO and management team. Muhas does not have the expertise or experience to manage a big hospital,’’ suggested the don.

“The hospital should be under the Health ministry, with a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Muhas thrown in. Anything short of this would undermine Mlongazila Hospital’s full potential,’’ he further warned.

The professor explained that hospitals are complex socio-political entities, and the ability for engagement and leadership among clinicians can be hampered by power dynamics, disciplinary boundaries, and competing discourses within the organisation.