TANZANIA – Aga Khan Health Service Tanzania and the Polish Government, through the Polish Centre for International Aid, have distributed equipment equivalent to TSh641.3 million (US$0.27m) to seven health facilities to strengthen the capacity to provide emergency care.
Dr Hussein Manji, the Project Coordinator of Improving Emergency Care in Tanzania (IMECT), noted that the equipment handover is part of the TSh1.8 billion (US$0.77) IMECT project aiming to strengthen emergency care in three Aga Khan health facilities and four public facilities in Dar-es-salaam and Mwanza.
Dr Manji highlighted the four public health facilities, including Mwananyamala, Temeke, and Chanika in Dar es Salaam and Nyamagana health centre in Mwanza.
The IMECT Project also encompasses first aid training for first responders such as traffic officers, police force, firefighters, and more to heighten the response to emergencies at first contact.
The project has trained about 1100 first responders in those respective regions.
He added that the project includes providing equipment to acute intake settings, training gear for teaching, and improving the quality of emergency care by training trainers and providers to develop skills.
“Emergency medicine is a specialized field of its own, and it is not enough to know what to do and when to do it but to have the resources and capacity to apply the knowledge into practice,” he said.
“When we strengthen the infrastructure through making equipment for diagnosing and managing emergency cases available, we give patients with critical emergencies a better chance at survival.”
The equipment included diagnostic and therapeutic tools like ECG machines, Vein finders, nebulizer machines, intraosseous access drivers, laryngoscope sets, oxygen flow meters and more, and consumables like oxygen masks, cervical collars, endotracheal tubes, chest tubes and more.
There were also fully equipped first aid kits and CPR pocket masks for the first responder organizations to facilitate the adequate provision of first aid on the ground.
“It is a privilege to receive such aid from the Aga Khan Health Service and Polish Government,” the Dar es Salaam Regional Medical Officer, Dr Rashid Mfaume, said.
“These equipment distributed yesterday will improve the quality of emergency care at the targeted health facilities and reduce the mortality rate of patients succumbing to emergencies.”
Dr Wojtek Wilk, CEO of – the Polish Centre for International Aid through the virtual conference, 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.
“This equipment will complement the medical training over the three years of this project by providing the opportunity to learn using modern training equipment and will enable the establishment of modern equipped emergency departments.”
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