Inside BMH’s bold leap into transplant medicine

DODOMA: IF hospitals were countries, Benjamin Mkapa National Hospital (BMH) would already be issuing passports stamped “Welcome to East Africa’s specialist care zone.”

Here, medical tourism figures alone tell the story: 2,897 patients from Burundi, 526 from Comoros and growing numbers from the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries have passed through its doors seeking care that once required expensive flights to India, South Africa, or Europe. Many now find themselves instead in Dodoma, where advanced minimally invasive surgery and increasingly confident surgical teams are quietly rewriting the region’s medical map and that is one procedure at a time.

This growing cross-border confidence is no accident. It reflects BMH’s steady transformation into a regional referral and training hub, and it is also the backdrop to a more ambitious chapter now unfolding: Gala dinners, marathon events and a structured fundraising drive aimed at expanding kidney and bone marrow transplant services. In other words, BMH is now doing something unusual in healthcare and that is it is running marathons so children with sickle cell disease do not have to run out of treatment options.

The initiatives are part of the hospital’s 10th anniversary celebrations in Dodoma, marking a decade since its establishment on October 13, 2015. The climax is expected on July 15, 2026, when stakeholders will gather for a major harambee aimed at strengthening life-saving transplant services.

According to Benjamin Mkapa National Hospital Executive Director, Prof Abel Makubi, while addressing Editors in Dar es Salaam recently, the hospital has received a cumulative government investment of 285bn/- since the fourth-phase government. That funding, he noted, has not just built buildings, it has built capability.

“When we started, the vision was clear: Specialised care, training and research using modern technology,” Prof Makubi said. “Today, we are seeing that vision mature into a fully-fledged referral and regional centre.”

BMH now serves an estimated 10 million citizens across eight regions of Tanzania. It operates with 400 beds and more than 1,070 employees, including over 100 specialist and super-specialist doctors. Its portfolio of services has expanded to 20 specialised and 18 superspecialised areas, covering everything from organ transplantation and cardiac surgery to neurosurgery, dialysis, radiology and minimally invasive procedures that would have sounded like science fiction a decade ago.

But the headline act without question is the bone marrow transplantation. Here, BMH has become the first public hospital in East and Central Africa to successfully perform bone marrow (hematopoietic stem cell) transplants for sickle cell disease and other blood disorders. In regional terms, that is not just progress; it is a medical plot twist.

The breakthrough came into sharper national focus in 2023, when Tanzania recorded its first successful bone marrow transplant for sickle cell disease at BMH. The procedure is now regarded as the closest available curative option for selected patients, though it remains limited by donor compatibility, cost and clinical risk factors.

For many families, however, the word “transplant” no longer sounds like a distant overseas referral. It now sounds like Dodoma.

Kidney transplant services, introduced in 2018, have followed a similar trajectory. Dozens of successful procedures have been carried out locally, significantly reducing the need for overseas treatment and easing financial pressure on families and the state. Demand, however, continues to rise and that is because kidneys, like reputations, do not stop becoming important just because you have made progress.

The hospital has also strengthened its surgical profile with paediatric open-heart surgery, pacemaker implantation, neurosurgery, urological operations and a growing suite of minimally invasive techniques. Procedures that once required large incisions and long recovery periods are increasingly being replaced with smaller cuts and faster returns to normal life, something patients certainly appreciate more than surgeons enjoy admitting.

In haematology and oncology, BMH has become a regional anchor for the treatment of sickle cell disease, leukemia, and lymphoma. Prof Makubi noted that structured clinics now provide long-term care, transfusion services and advanced interventions including exchange transfusion and transplantbased therapies.

Beyond treatment, the hospital has taken on another crucial role: Producing the next generation of health professionals. Doctors, nurses and allied health workers are trained through internships, clinical attachments and continuous professional development. As Prof Makubi puts it, “A hospital that heals today must also teach tomorrow.”

If bone marrow transplants are the hospital’s headline innovation, then sickle cell disease is its defining mission.

Elaborating, Clinical Haematologist and Assistant Director of Haematology and Oncology, Dr Stella Malangahe, said BMH has now successfully performed stem cell transplants on 30 children, with 12 already discharged and back in school.

In her words, “They didn’t just recover, but they returned to homework and school uniforms, which is probably the best clinical outcome you can measure.”

Each transplant costs at least 75m/-, a figure that places it firmly outside the reach of most families. To bridge that gap, BMH is now preparing a dedicated fundraising initiative. “Due to the high costs, the hospital has decided to organise a fundraising event, and we are calling on stakeholders to join us in this noble cause to support the health of our people,” Dr Malangahe said.

The procedure itself currently depends on compatible family donors and requires around 30 days of intensive inpatient care. However, research is underway to widen donor options beyond familybased matches as an important step if the service is to move from rare to routine.

Dr Malangahe also noted that the hospital is expanding minimally invasive eye surgeries and non-surgical interventions for chronic back pain, including facet injections and epidural blocks. In simpler terms, BMH is steadily reducing the number of patients who have to “endure surgery” in the traditional sense.

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The hospital’s regional reputation has also been reinforced through medical outreach. In Burundi, Tanzanian specialists treated 2,897 patients and performed 211 surgeries during specialist camps. Thirty-two children were identified for further treatment in Dodoma. Tanzania’s Ambassador to Burundi, Galasius Byakanwa, said the initiative brought relief to many families and even helped identify two doctors for training in Tanzania.

Earlier commenting on this, the First Lady of Burundi, Angeline Ndayishimiye, praised the teams, saying: “I congratulate the doctors from Benjamin Mkapa Hospital. You have greatly helped us ensure that our people receive treatment and recover.”

BMH’s international partnerships with Japan’s Tokoshukai Medical Group, the Moran Eye Center in the United States, and Turkish medical teams continue to strengthen skills exchange and specialist training. At home, the hospital is also advancing antimicrobial stewardship programmes and expanding cancer treatment capacity through new chemotherapy and radiotherapy infrastructure.

Prof Makubi said these developments are anchored in sustained government investment and strategic partnerships, including a 32bn/- cancer centre and a 44.9bn/- kidney treatment facility supported by both Tanzania and international partners.

Looking ahead, BMH’s 10-year vision is clear: Become a leading centre of excellence and a regional medical tourism hub. The hospital has already begun its anniversary roadmap, with activities launched in October 2025 and a climax set for July 15, 2026 in Dodoma.

The goal is to raise 7bn/- over two years through gala dinners, marathon events, institutional contributions and broader stakeholder engagement. So far, about 4bn/- has been mobilised. To chip in, here is the Control Number: 986930000001 – Name: BMH Organ Transplant and Bank Account: 102501000407 (BOT) – Name: BMH Organ Transplant.

As Prof Makubi summed it up, “We invite all Tanzanians, health stakeholders, institutions and partners to join us in this initiative so that together we can save lives.”

And at BMH, that mission now includes a quiet but powerful reality: What once required a passport for treatment abroad can increasingly be done at home and sometimes even with a running shoe, thanks to those fundraising marathons.

Behind the clinical precision and expanding technology, the hospital continues to stand by a simple philosophy: Putting oneself in the patient’s shoes, accountability and dedication. In BMH’s case, those shoes now seem to be running a full marathon toward the future of East African specialised medicine.