The Muhimbili Academic Medical Centre (MAMC) at Mloganzila.
What you need to know:
Opened in January 2017 by President John Magufuli, MAMC is another campus of the Muhimbili University of Health and Associated Sciences (Muhas), itself established in 1963 as the Dar es Salaam School of Medicine.
The Muhimbili Academic Medical Centre (MAMC) at Mloganzila, some 25 kilometres from Dar es Salaam, is already facing otherwise avoidable challenges, chief among which are staff shortage and inadequate funding.
Opened in January 2017 by President John Magufuli, MAMC is another campus of the Muhimbili University of Health and Associated Sciences (Muhas), itself established in 1963 as the Dar es Salaam School of Medicine.
Today, MAMC has only 553 staff, instead of the minimum of 968, and an ideal complement of “1,300 medical doctors/specialists, nurses, biomedical engineers and other cadres, to meet the human resource requirements for the hospital,” according to the Muhas vice-chancellor for hospital services, Prof Said Abood.
MAMC also faces financial challenges, including shortage of funds to purchase medicinal drugs, only 24 per cent of which they can obtain from the Medical Stores Department.
With 571 hospital beds, 12 operating theatres, lecture theatres, a psychiatric ward, and other high-tech health facilities – both medical and research – MAMC is capable of reducing the number of Tanzanians travelling abroad for medical attention, according to the Muhas Vice Chancellor, Prof Ephata Kaaya.
The government therefore must thrash out ways and means of adequately staffing and funding MAMC to give it the capacity and status it so richly deserves.
