Africally

Tanzania’s six years old National Health Policy is poised for patch-up, government minister has said.
Health Minister Professor David Mwakyusa said in Arusha over the weekend that the proposed policy review would follow the vision of enhancing public access to health services with less hassles.
In the policy kit was a resolve to train more medical staff by expanding existing training facilities, as well as building new ones to cater for the various needs in the health sector through private sector collaboration.
Speaking during the national health forum held in Arusha Thursday, Mwakyusa said consultations with various institutions and sector stakeholders have kick-started with a view to incorporating their inputs into the policy package.
One of the expected policy direction was to reduce the number of patients treated abroad annually and save on scarce foreign exchange, he said.
As an example, he said, his ministry has sent 27 experts to India and Israel to study treatment of heart-related diseases,” Prof Mwakyusa explained.
Likewise, treatment of kidney diseases is now done in the country in collaboration with international organizations.�”Treating people abroad was very expensive”, he noted.