The government will ensure it implements the universal health insurance law in order to enable more citizens access health services
Dar es Salaam. The government yesterday highlighted key priority areas for 2024 in the health sector, which it said recorded significant growth last year amid positive prospects.
The Minister for Health, Ummy Mwalimu, said that some of the focus areas include preventive interventions to protect the public from diseases as well as improving vaccination services and nutrition, especially for children under five years. “Establishing the services of community health workers (CHW’s) and providing awareness to the public about the prevention of communicable and non-communicable diseases (NDCs), as 70 percent of them are caused by food eating behaviour,” she said during a press conference in which she briefed reporters about the success and challenges in the health sector in 2023.
Some of the achievements she outlined include the rise of health facilities, the reduction of maternity deaths, the increase of beds, and addressing epidemics such as Marburg in a short period of time.
Ms Mwalimu noted that the government will continue to increase the number of health workers at all levels, building the capacity of health workers by sending expert doctors located in regional referral hospitals to health centres and district hospitals to provide practical training (mentorship) on providing quality health services for pregnant women and children.
According to her, the government will ensure it implements the health insurance law for all in order to enable a number of citizens to access health services without financial constraints.
To complete the guidelines for the cost of providing health services at public health care centres in order to have a fair balance of prices for the provision of services.
The move will strengthen productivity and reduce complaints regarding the treatment of special groups of patients who deserve medical exemption: children under the age of five, pregnant women, and the disabled elderly.
The government will also focus on increasing the local capacity to produce equipment, medical equipment, and medicine. To strengthen the management of professionalism and ethics for health professionals.
Ms Mwalimu said the government will continue to encourage wananchi to change their lifestyle, consider eating properly, exercise, and strengthen the quality of services in public centres providing health services at all levels, such as district and regional hospitals.
She said the government will continue to invest in zonal and national hospitals in order to improve service delivery infrastructure, including completing and renovating construction projects and carrying out preventive maintenance on time.
Explaining the achievements, she said the government has continued to increase the budget for the health sector, and the number of foreign patients seeking treatment in local hospitals has continued to increase due to the quality of the facilities installed in hospitals.
The government has also received Sh650 billion from the World Bank to strengthen health facilities and provide quality services.
Cholera
Ms Mwalimu said the government noted the outbreak of cholera in some regions but was monitoring the situation and promised to issue a complete statement about the disease.
She said the outbreak started last year and continues to affect some regions even today.
