AfricaPress-Tanzania: HEALTH Minister Hamad Rashid Mohamed has asked the House of Representatives to approve the renaming of envisaged Binguni Referral and Teaching Hospital after President Ali Mohamed Shein.
“President Shein has done a commendable job towards the improvement of public health service delivery in the country; it’s my sincere proposal to this House to grant the renaming of the modern Binguni facility after our beloved leader,” Minister Hamad implored members of the House.
The revolutionary government had since the 2018/2019 financial year been allocating funds to the construction of the state-of-the art hospital in the Unguja South region’s Central District, with 3.97bn/- disbursed for the initial project execution.
Already, the Ministry of Health has hired consultants for architectural designs and the Bill of Quantities (BOQ) preparations, assignments which the minister said had been accomplished.
“The government has in good faith opted to use a government owned contractor, which involves engineers and other professionals from special departments, in implementing the project,” Mr Hamad said, justifying the use of the public contractors as cost effective.
The Zanzibar government had expected to secure loans from the Saudi Fund, BADEA and Kuwait Fund through the Union government but due to delays, it resolved to commence the project albeit gradually.
During the 2019/2020 fiscal year, the government allocated 6bn/- to commence construction of four buildings – emergency services, central pathology laboratory, radiology and surgery services.
The hospital project has also appeared prominently in the ministry’s 2020/2021 priorities under the 51,258,210,000/- curative programme whose other key activities include construction of workers’ houses at Abdalla Mzee hospital, massive renovations at Wete hospital and procurement of drugs, medical equipment and reagents.
