MUHIMBILI FORMS DOCTORS TEAM TO MEET PM

Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) management has blessed specialist doctor’s plans to meet with Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda to discuss the issue of striking doctors.
The move followed a closed door meeting yesterday involving the under the leadership of the MNH Executive Director, Marina Njelekela to discuss the fate of patients as the doctors’ strike entered its tenth day.
Briefing journalists yesterday in Dar es Salaam, MNH Public Information Officer Aminiel Aligaesha said the aim of the meeting was to form the committee that would meet the Premier and discuss the doctors’ demands.
“The committee will discuss with the prime minister the present situation at the hospital and present their own (specialised doctors’) demands related to the profession,” said Aligaesha.
He declined to disclose the names of members of the committee, saying only that they will be made public later.
He stressed that the specialist doctors were not on strike but wanted to meet the government to press for a quick end to the crisis.
He added: “The specialist doctors are concerned at the deteriorating situation and so have urged the management to urgently form a committee that will have a duty of making sure that the two parties which are the currently Interim Doctors’ Committee and the government sit together and resolve the issue.
Aligaesha admitted that the situation at the hospital had worsened, saying services were being manned by the few doctors who did not join the strike and military doctors.
“Services at the hospital are bad due to the ongoing strike…this has badly affected the service delivery in various wards,” he explained when asked on the current situation at the centre.He said emergency services were provided currently without any problems.
However the officer refuted reports that 80 doctors from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and its institutions have started providing services at the hospital as announced by Minister Dr Hadji Mponda. “None of them has reported,” he stressed.
He said despite the presence of army doctors services were yet to be provided to the required standards.
He said the number of new patients reporting at MNH yesterday was smaller compared to the previous days
“We are receiving a very few patients…yesterday we had only 25 new patients,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Tanzania Union of Government and Health Employee’s (TUGHE) Deputy Secretary, John Sanjo yesterday advised the government to urgently find a solution to the doctors’ grievances so as to enhance provision of health services at public hospitals countrywide.
Sanjo said the government’s reluctance in responding to their claims would result into more deaths as some patients.
He said TUGHE supported the striking doctors and will continue to push for the government to resolve their problems.


“It is important for the government to urgently resolve problems facing medical doctors and create a good working environment for other cadres of health workers,” said Sanjo.


At Amana Hospital services were said to have improved after some health official were hired from nearby hospitals.
But the number of patients had decreased following absence of the intern doctors who are on a strike. Most of the beds in the wards were empty.
The mortuary building appeared rather crowded with more caskets carried out of the building and more people approaching the building to pick their relatives’ bodies.
Efforts to get the officials of the hospital for further clarifications failed after the Secretary of Amana hospital Nsubili Njela said they had been urgently summoned to the Regional Commissioner’s office.
In another development the Chama Cha Mapinduzi youth wing, UVCCM has called on the government to stop using force in ending the doctors’ strike.
The UVCCM Secretary General, Martin Shigella said this yesterday when addressing reporters in Dar es Salaam stressing that the government has to use dialogue to solve the crisis.
He said the strike has affected the health of many who voted for the ruling party, stressing that immediate measures have to be taken to end the menace, to ensure all is well in hospitals.


“What we want is for the government to sit down with doctors to end the strike and save the lives of people who are suffering for not receiving health services,” said Shigella.

BFTZ SHARING IS CARING