Healthcare

Public health education is a vital step to communities understanding healthissues. MIDEF is seeking funding to construct a new 100 bed Communityhospital at Bweni. The community has now made the bricks but, unfortunately, the construction has been postponed due to the recession. However, we hope this will start towards the end of 2009.

Phase 1: The new hospital will include the following services:

Pediatrics, Surgery, Internal Medicine, Emergency Room, Intensive Care, andAmbulatory Services. These services will be supported by Radiology,Laboratory and other ancillary services and will open in a step-wisefashion, starting with 20 beds to increase to 50 beds during the first 6 months and with the expectation to ramp up to full capacity (100 beds) after 18 to 24 months. At full capacity, it will include 300 beds and will offer the following services to the population:

• 1. Pediatrics - 20 beds
• Gynecology/Obstetrics/Women’s Health - 40 beds
• Internal Medicine - 20 beds
• Surgery (general and subspecialties) - 10 beds (two operating room fully equipped)
• Emergency Medicine
• Intensive Care - 10 beds
• Outpatient Care
• Laboratory services - hematology, biochemistry, serology and microbiology
• Radiology (Ultrasounds - Sterilizations) (MRI, 16 slice CT scanner)

A special focus will be placed on maternal and child health where the burden of illness and death is particularly heavy, and will also address
emerging diseases such as diabetes, stroke, cancer, and infectious diseases, especially HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Ambulatory care services will support and feed the in-patient services. Targets:

• All persons in need of secondary and tertiary health care
• Persons referred by primary health care centers surrounding the Hospital
• High-risk pregnancies
• Sick and at-risk children
• Medical students
• Physicians in training
• Researchers and academicians (university faculty)

Research Facility:

The new hospital will incorporate a Research Center in the near future, but the emphasis now is to open Phase 1.

Educational / Technical:

In the future Mafia Island Development Foundation (MIDEF) will sponsor Tanzanian public health students to study in the overseas to enhance their medical training. Training will focus on short-term programs in the fields of: laboratory, quality control, epidemiology, rural health, hospital/pharmacology administration and management. The program beneficiaries are expected to become the nucleus for developing the new hospital and rebuilding the deteriorated health services system in the capital city.

Telemedicine will play an integral role in the Bweni Hospital and Research Center. In simple terms, telemedicine electronically links a physician with a patient in a remote location. For example, a physician in London could be examining a patient and consulting with the patient/s physician in Tanzania without ever leaving their local hospital. The net result is a diagnostic consultation that directly benefits the patient and provides a valuable learning experience for the medical professionals on both ends of the session.

Progress reporting back to you:

MIDEF adopts a very personal approach with its major funding organisations with regular reporting and communication. All other donors will be kept updated through online newsletters which will highlight the current activities of the charity. We will monitor and supervise the projects through our trained and committed Tanzanian staff.