TANZANIA: TEC Conduct a three-day forum on health issues.
Most Rev. Thadeus Ruwa'ichi, Archbishop of Mwanza
By Sarah Pelaji, Kiongozi Newspaper TEC
EALTH Department of Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC) under the umbrella of Social Services Directorate has conducted a forum on improving access to quality health in Catholic health institutions in Tanzania.
The participants of the forum were Diocesan Health Secretaries, Hospital Management Teams and Principals while the health department of TEC was the host.
Archbishop of Mwanza
In his opening remark at the beginning of the forum, Most Rev. Thadeus Ruwa’ich, Archbishop of Mwanza said that the Catholic Church is the major player in the provision of education and health services in Tanzania and all over the world.
Therefore the role of the secretariat through the Directorate of Social services is to support Diocesan Education and Health Departments to improve the quality of education and health services provided by Catholic institutions in Tanzania.
He insisted that Catholic hospitals ought to improve access to quality health services and that the main focus should be put on planning and implementing alternative ways of financing catholic health systems.
“There is a need to review our traditional ways of generating hospital revenues through users fees (out of pocket) and donations being the main sources and thus venture into other reliable funding sources bearing in mind the declining trend of government support or subsidies to our facilities,” he said.
He also insisted on increasing the identity of Catholic hospitals through practicing of Catholic ethics and values. That in offering services at Catholic hospital there should be a developing code of ethics, advocating to bishops on the appointment of fully and dully qualified hospital chaplains.
He wanted all catholic health institutions to reflect on improving the quality of health services delivered to the community they serve as Catholic values demand.
“Ensuring adequate availability of drug supplies, adequate availability of skilled and committed staffs,” he said adding that there should be improvement on ethics in offering services especially to poor and people who are not in positions to pay for the services on time and accordingly. “Staffs should treat them fairly with love because Catholic Church is the home for all.”
“We need to aggressively address issues related to health consumers, dissatisfaction with critical governance issues such as abuses of power, financial mismanagement and corruption,” the Archbishop said.
Diocesan and Catholic hospitals are requested to learn from well performing dioceses and hospitals especially in the areas of human resources for health and financial management.
“I therefore propose that all Catholic hospitals should install electronic devices for collecting patients’ fees. Am also proposing reviewing National TEC health Policy. I urge you to deeply go through the TEC Health Policy and propose amendments whenever possible,” he told the participants.
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