Govt intensifies medical tourism agenda

DODOMA: MINISTER for Health, Jenista Mhagama, has instructed Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Dr Seif Shekalaghe, to strengthen efforts to develop medical tourism campaign due to the significant investment made by the government in the health sector.

She made the directive over the weekend in Dodoma when receiving a medical tourism report presented to her by the Vice-Chairman of the committee, Abdulmalik Mollel in a short ceremony that was held at Benjamin Mkapa Hospital premises.

Minister Mhagama said the committee has done a great job of promoting medical tourism and its fruits have begun to be seen for abroad patients coming to Tanzania for specialty treatment.

She said that with the huge investment made by President Samia Suluhu Hassan, 80 per cent of Tanzanians can access health services within five kilometres of where they live, adding that Tanzania is among the African countries that have many MRI machines.

Minister Mhagama commended JKCI Director General Dr Peter Kisenge for providing expert treatment that has attracted international patients to seek treatment at JKCI. The National Medical Tourism Committee submitted a four-year report to the government outlining numerous achievements including Tanzania becoming a hub for medical tourism south of the Sahara Desert.

Speaking immediately after submitting the report, Vice-Chairman of the Committee, Mr Mollel, said the National Medical Tourism Committee which was under the chairmanship of Prof Mohamed Janabi started in 2021 and has ended its term in 2024.

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Mr Mollel said President Samia visited the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute in May 2021 and launched one of the heart treatment plants and then said that she wanted to see Tanzania become a medical tourism hub, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

“After seeing the huge investment made at JKCI, she gave that vision, so this committee that has expired was formed based on the vision of President Samia,” said Mollel.

He said to implement President Samia’s vision, they initially recommended four hospitals including Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI), Ocean Road Cancer Institute and the Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI).

He said the Committee visited various countries to learn about medical tourism in developed countries that have made great strides in the health sector, including India where they went with 18 top doctors from local hospitals.

“We were tasked to advise on marketing measures, stakeholders coordination and capacity building so that when we say we are ready, we can go directly to implementation,” said Mollel.

He said the Committee coordinated internal infrastructure improvements in various hospitals such as VIP rooms and held meetings with many stakeholders and Tanzanian ambassadors abroad and foreign ambassadors in Tanzania.

JKCI Director, Dr Peter Kisenge, said the Medical Tourism Committee conducted the Dr Samia Outreach Programme in Comoros to promote the investment that has been made in the country.

He said that while in Comoros, Tanzanian doctors attended 2,770 people, of whom 470 needed referrals to JKCI, Benjamin Mkapa, MKOI, Muhimbili and Ocean Road hospitals. Dr Kisenge said that in Comoros they spent 300m/-, but so far the money collected from medical tourism for patients from Comoros has reached more than 2bn/-.