What Sanitas services mean to Dar es Salaam residents

IT doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative in Tanzania is booming.

Take a walk around Dar es Salaam and the rest of the country and you are sure to see mushrooming private hospitals, clinics and other forms of health centres. Recently Sanitas, a one stop, state-of-the-art health centre was opened and staff writer MASEMBE TAMBWE explores what this centre will mean to the people of Dar es Salaam and the country at large.

HEALTH sector has proved to be a success in various parts of the country. When one walks around in Dar es Salaam and upcountry, he/she may see a number of hospitals, health centers and dispensaries that have been opened in recent years. Pedro Ramadhani, a dedicated man who used to work as information officer at the Ministry of Health and Social Services died three days after he had revealed some information related to the health sector.

He had revealed that from 1961 to 2011, a total of three zonal hospitals had been opened along with 10 regional hospitals; 86 council designated hospitals owned by religious organisations, 37 district private hospitals, 196 health centers and 2,340 dispensaries. The government using the PPP law is allowed to give subsidies and even medical personnel to private medical establishments so they render services more smoothly to the public.

Mr Ramadhani had said that in recent years, the ministry had seen a mushrooming emergence of diagnostic centers with state of the art technology and other equipment and that the centers were out to assist the government improve medical services as well as increase the number of facilities. One such state of the art facility is Sanitas Medics and Diagnostics Limited whose Chief Executive Officer, Mr Murthy Venkateswaran described it as being the brain child of local and international entrepreneurs who perceived a change in the desires and expectations of Tanzanians for their medical services.

“Sanitas is a modern facility that offers a full suite of outpatient services from consultation, laboratory investigations, surgical solutions, radiology imaging, rehabilitation and physiotherapy, dialysis treatment and a well stocked pharmacy,” he said.
Mr Venkateswaran said that the primary goal of the establishment apart from assisting the government and providing quality services to the public was for it to be a one stop center where everything is found under one roof.

He explained that they had spared no effort or expense in creating a spacious modern facility, designed and constructed with patient care in mind. “Ease of access to all services and a central reception reduces the need for patients to be shuffled around. Waiting areas are air conditioned and comfortable with refreshments available. Sanitas’ aim is to make world class medical services available to all,” he said.

Mr Venkateswaran said with a hint of pride in his voice that in terms of equipment and services, Sanitas is perhaps the first outpatient center that has most of the services one would find in a major hospital. Some of these include five state of the art dialysis units in the latest German technology with their own water purification plant, radiology imaging services (X-ray and Mammogram) that provide a comprehensive range of the latest imaging technology with computer relayed system, and a 3D ultrasound.

There is also a laboratory which is as sophisticated as that of the Muhimbili National Hospital with several pioneering technologies offering the widest range of investigations including hematology, serology, microbiology, immunology, biochemistry, bacteriology and more. Sanitas also houses departments for physiotherapy for gym based rehabilitation and muscle balance, a lifestyle and nutrition consult center, ophthalmology, dentistry, an Ear, Nose and Throat care center, a pediatrics that caters for juvenile diabetes and child obesity among others, a cardiology unit, orthopedic unit and more in the 13 consultation rooms.

“We felt it was important to have as many consultation rooms as possible such that we are able to handle patients swiftly. It is for this reason that we are able to see 500 patients per day,” the CEO said. Like many health facilities in the world that have partners, Sanitas has partnered with AMI in Dar es Salaam whereby patients that go to Sanitas and need to be operated upon are taken to AMI for the surgery and hospitalization. The surgeries are done by Sanitas surgeons. This makes Sanitas an OP as well as an IP facility.

It has also partnered with a super specialty hospital based in India with the intention to meeting the government’s plans of reducing the number of surgery patients travelling to India by bringing India to Tanzanians. “The number of patients going to India from Tanzania for surgeries has increased significantly to a point where even the Indian institutions are waking up to the potential here. “That and the establishment of Sanitas, which is determined to bring down costs for Tanzanians by bringing the super specialists here have resulted in the frequent visits from specialist surgeons to Dar,” he said.

The CEO said Sanitas has an agreement with the Indian Hospital that every four months their super specialist surgeons would come here and operate upon people right here at AMI rather than them having to send patients to India and incur high costs. “Tanzania’s big medical problems are to do with the lack of facilities and expertise to perform complex procedures. In time, we at Sanitas will endeavour to address them,” he explained.

The installation of five brand new dialysis machines from Fresenius in Germany and staffing of experienced and qualified dialysis technicians in the first week of last month meant that Sanitas being a one stop health center was complete. Recently they started, in support of parents, guardians and caregivers, offering free Well-Child Clinics on the last Saturday of every month from 9am to 12pm.

Led by Dr Alma, sessions cover early nutrition, parenting skills, baby development, feeding techniques, common ailments, hyperactive behavior, developmental monitoring, developmental milestones, cognitive learning, social and emotional skills, and more. From June they have also started a cervical screening center with the appointment of Grace Lubomba, a Cervical Cancer Program Officer. Grace would also be conducting Reproductive and Child Health programs at Sanitas. Sanitas has also recently owned a branch at Quality Plaza along Nyerere Road and will soon open its doors to Arusha residents.

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