MUHIMBILI National Hospital (MNH) has continued to bring smiles to the public, this time with good news that it now manages to avoid the mortality rate by 70 per cent of immature babies and those with low immune system that were occurring within 24 hours after birth.
The development comes after the hospital built an isolation ward which guarantees special treatment to toddlers.
Previously, the hospital was capable of avoiding only 30 per cent of deaths, according to MNH Director of Medical Services Dr Hedwiga Swai.
Dr Swai was highlighting the achievements gained during the leadership of President John Magufuli as far as improvements in the health sector was concerned.
She was speaking with a team of information officers and journalists who were following up on the improvements in health services provision at the hospital.
The team was implementing an ongoing campaign dubbed ‘Tumeboresha Afya’, which intends to expose what the institutions under the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children did to improve infrastructures and services to people.
Dr Swai noted that the government gave a total of 2.3bn/- for the hospital to build the special ward for providing the intensive therapy to the infants.
The ward started operations in March last year. The initiative was part of a drive to improve hospital infrastructures, Intensive Care Units (ICUs) being for children, surgery, mothers, immature babies and kidney transplantation.
On other hand, she announced that the MNH seeks to double the number of patients who would undergo kidney transplantation at the facility.
Since the service started two years ago, the national hospital has conducted kidney transplant to over 50 patients, but now the target is 60 patients every year by conducting kidney transplant on five patients per month.
From 2017, the hospital conducted kidney transplant to 51 patients and this week it started a camp for transplanting kidney to another five patients, thus making a total of 56 patients.
It had cost a total of 1.53bn/- for doing kidney transplant to 51 patients while it would have cost over 6.12bn/- if it were done abroad.
She also spoke of a plan to introduce a bone marrow transplant service, saying 90 per cent of facilities required for such services had already arrived at the hospital, thus setting the stage for commencement of the service provision by end of next February or mid-March.
