Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Arusha Lutheran Medical Centre (ALMC) and the Aga Khan Hospital based in Dar es Salaam have signed an agreement to drive the multi-billion dollars medical tourism in Tanzania.
The world-class private hospitals on Wednesday inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Arusha city to formalise their cooperation in provision of global standards healthcare service to chronic diseases, in order to attract foreign patients and cater for locals.
The MoU signed by the ALMC and the Aga Khan Health Services chief executive officers, Mr Elisha Twisa, and Mr Sisawo Konteh, respectively, requires the two hospitals to collaborate in provision of referral and other specialized healthcare-related services.
The key health care facilities also agreed to collaborate in quality assurance and accreditation procedures in order to raise ALMC into a centre of excellence, specialized healthcare services and exchange programmes as well as in advanced clinical service delivery and referral programmes.
They would cooperate in capacity building and training, research, development and resource mobilisation that include project designs and business development as well as outreach programmes.
The Aga Khan Hospital is competent in offering trainings for medical doctors to become specialists in international medicine, second family medicine, third general surgeries, fourth obstetrics and gynaecology as well as fifth paediatrics.
“The MoU, among others, intends to relief the chronic disease patients with a liability of seeking treatment abroad, as from now they will be treated either at ALMC in Arusha or at Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam. We are going to offer quality medical care with the global scales to reduce the country’s medical tourism bill,” said Mr Twisa.
Available data shows that the annual medical tourism bill for the East African region, Tanzania inclusive, stands at 150 million US dollars, up from 60 million US dollars in 2010, with the majority of patients seeking heart, kidney, complex surgeries and cancer treatment.
“This kind of pollination partnership will guarantee patients the highest quality healthcare services of international standards within the country and will lower the medical tourism bill. With the professional exchange of best practises, it’s possible,” Mr Twisa explained.
The Aga Khan Health Services CEO, Mr Konteh, termed the MoU as a critical milestone in healthcare service provision, as it brings the two world-class private hospitals together to complement each other in their quest to offer the highest quality of specialized health care for the people of Tanzania.
“We are looking forward to witnessing a very fruitful collaboration in healthcare service provision. This agreement will be a game changer in driving the country’s medical tourism,” Mr Konteh noted.
Lately, ALMC has become a role model in the delivery of quality neonatal care, as it has been attracting several local hospitals and more so African countries that send their medical personnel to replicate its best practices, thus raising the country’s profile high as well as complimenting the government’s drive on medical tourism.
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