Health ministry spent 6bn/- to upgrade Mirembe hospital

THE Ministry of Health has spent a total of 6bn/- to facilitate a project for the general upgrading of the Dodoma-based Mirembe National Mental Health Hospital (MNMHH), the government has said.

Deputy Minister for Health Dr Godwin Mollel revealed the figure here during his visit to inspect the progress of the ongoing construction of varied infrastructures at the country’s famous mental health facility.

He said President Samia Suluhu Hassan had approved more than 6bn/- to support improvement of the infrastructure and medical equipment at the hospital, adding that he was far impressed to see that the project was at an advantageous stage for completion.

“Make sure you take good care and make sober use of these infrastructures and medical equipment in order to improve, but also provide better services to the public,” he challenged the MNMHH’s staff.

Dr Mollel also asked all health workers and experts at the historical hospital, to apply use of polite and professional language in the course of their daily service delivery.

Together with that, he directed the Medical Store Department (MSD) to ensure it sends orthopaedic surgery equipment to the hospital within a period exceeding two months, so that the citizens can start benefiting from the service that they previously followed for a long distance.

“MSD make sure you bring the surgical equipment within two months, you also need to give permission within 24 hours to all health care centres across the country to be able to procure medicines in case the needed medicine are not available at MSD, so as to eliminate preventable inconvenience to the people” he stressed.

Dr Mollel moreover advised the management of the hospital to start mulling on how best to add other health services at the facility, with specific target to serve for the patients with other health complications apart from those who suffer from mental health problems.

Likewise, the deputy minister ordered the hospital to be given an ambulance due to the sensitivity of its services, so as to stand a professional side to save the lives of the patients, who require urgent ambulance services.

“I am directing leaders with all hospitals in the country to stop the ‘unprofessional’ practice of preventing referral patients from any other centre regardless of whether the patient’s care is exempt or not, this will help to lessen challenges for patients including preventable deaths,” he said.

On his part, the Director of Administration and Human Resources at the Ministry of Health, Deodatha Makani said that as the hospital is heading to become an institution, it was prudent to the involved health workers to embrace a fresh working spirit, with seed and standards.

Mirembe Hospital was opened in 1927 with a total of 29 patients, who were transferred from Lutindi rehabilitation centre. The hospital has a total of 340 beds serving patients with physical and mental illnesses.

The number of patients has been increasing over the years. It has so far served at least 53,946 patients by 2020.