More heads roll within troubled health sector

VARIOUS key stakeholders in the local health sector have hailed the recent presidential appointment of a new chief medical officer at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, along with other crucial related administrative changes

THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam

VARIOUS key stakeholders in the local health sector have hailed the recent presidential appointment of a new chief medical officer at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, along with other crucial related administrative changes, saying these were signs of a fresh bid to restore confidence in the troubled sector.

However, members of the World Bank-led Development Partners Group on Health (DPG-Health), as well as a cross-section of informed government sources interviewed in the course of an in-depth exposure by THISDAY, also made it clear that there is still lots to be done towards this end.

”We hope that the new appointees, especially that of chief medical officer, will seriously help the ministry’s permanent secretary (Ms Hilda Gondwe) to cleanse this sensitive ministry and restore its credibility in the eyes of the donors and the general public,” said a member of the DPG-Health when asked to comment.

In a surprise move, President Kikwete earlier this month named the Dar es Salaam regional chief medical officer, Dr Deo Mtasiwa, to replace Dr Gabriel Upunda as chief medical officer at the ministry. Other recent major changes have been the removal of the registrar of the Private Health Laboratories Board (PHLB), Sabas Mlina, and the director of pharmaceutics at the Medical Stores Department, Christopher Msemo, in quick succession.

Mlina is understood to have been transferred since January this year to a teaching position at the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences (MUCHS) in Dar es Salaam, while Msemo apparently resigned over the row caused by questionable purchases of the Indian-made antiretroviral (ARV) drug Emtri which has since been �rejected� by the Tanzania Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (TANOPHA).

”Msemo was forced to resign following the Emtri and several other scandals in which he was involved,” an informed ministry source told THISDAY. His position at MSD is now being occupied by Ms Lucy Ndelimo in an acting capacity, while that of Mlina has been taken over by Bernard Mapalala as acting PHLB registrar.

In the case of Dr Upunda, a highly respected medical professional, he is believed to have been a key architect behind the establishment of the current national medical supply list and the crafting of the current national algorithm diagnostic test for HIV/AIDS, both of which have become subjects of much controversy and hullabaloo within the local health sector as a whole.

Our sources have described the recent administrative upheavals as part of a process of ‘restoring sanity’ in the health sector managerial set-up, where �intellectual sabotage’ has been described as rife and a few senior officials said to be making questionable decisions related to medical procurements.

”The donors want to see change, major change, at the ministry if they are to continue lending assistance to health projects in the country,” a reliable source at the National Medical Research Institute (NIMR) told THISDAY.

The DPG-Health recently submitted to health minister Prof. David Mwakyusa its own formal report, strongly castigating what it described as ‘excessive bureaucracy and questionable conduct’ by some senior officials in the ministry, especially regarding the release and subsequent use of various project funds.

And according to our NIMR sources, the American Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has already withdrawn some funding to a national bank for a cleaner blood project, which is said to be manipulated by one local businessman (name withheld) with the collaboration of various health ministry officials.

The CDC is currently working with NIMR on malaria research and with the National Aids Control Programme (NACP) on the national safe-blood project.

Our ministry sources, meanwhile, said DPG-Health members are continuing to press for the removal of more senior officials believed to have played major roles in the procurement of substandard medicines and equipment, and the establishment of the controversial national supply list and HIV test algorithm.

According to the sources, the donor group members have been picking out various officials at NACP and a number of technical committees in the ministry, where most of the controversial decisions are understood to have been made.

”However, some of these officials have simply been reshuffled to other sensitive positions within the same ministry,” the sources told THISDAY.

Similarly, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis is also said to have threatened to withdraw funding to the country unless more major administrative changes are made at the ministry and the health sector in general.

Source: This Day