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Dar es Salaam. The Aga Khan Health Service, Tanzania (AKHS-T), has distributed medical equipment worth Sh641.3 million as part of its Sh1.8 billion project meant to strengthen the country’s emergency healthcare.

The donation is implemented through a project dubbed “Improving Emergency Care in Tanzania” (IMECT), a tripartite project funded by the Polish government through its centre for international aid (PCPM), in conjunction with AKHS-T and the government.

Officiating the event held here yesterday, Dr Rashid Mfaume, Dar es Salaam’s regional medical officer (RMO), said: “The equipment distributed will improve the quality of emergency care at the targeted facilities and reduce the mortality rate of patients who succumbed to emergencies.”

The said healthcare equipment included diagnostic and therapeutic tools such as ECG machines, vein finders, nebulizer machines, intraosseous access drivers, laryngoscope sets, and oxygen flow metres

Other tools that were donated were consumables, namely oxygen masks, cervical collars, endotracheal tubes, chest tubes, fully equipped first aid kits, and CPR pocket masks, which will be distributed to first responder organisations.

“Emergency medicine is a specialised field of its own, and it is not enough to know what to do and when to do it; one must also have the response and capacity to put the knowledge into practice,” observed Dr Hussein Manji, AKHS-TT project coordinator. He added, “When we strengthen the infrastructure by making equipment for diagnosing and managing emergency cases available, we give patients with critical emergencies a better chance at survival.”

Commenting on the donation, Dr Wojtek Wilk, CEO of the PCPM, said: “We are happy and proud to work with the government of Tanzania through the Aga Khan Health Services to strengthen emergency care in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza.”

Adding: “This equipment will complement the medical training provided over the course of the project’s three years, providing the opportunity to learn using modern training equipment and enabling the establishment of a modern emergency department.”

For his party, Dr Erasto Sylvanus, head of emergency and clinical care at the ministry of health, appealed for more innovation, saying: “I do encourage partnering institutions to continue innovating sustainable health projects in the country.” Dr Sylvanus was of the view that with more innovative health projects, the population will be impacted, and that the government is in favour of multi-sectoral public-private partnerships to address community and health system needs.

Speaking on behalf of the implementing facilities, Dr Thomas Rutachunzibwa, RMO for Mwanza, stated that AKHS-T is exemplary in public-private partnerships in its effort to complement government endeavors that strengthen the health system.