Annual report of the Medical Department / Tanganyika Territory.

  • Tanganyika. Medical Department
Date:
[1951]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Department / Tanganyika Territory. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    rather than by staff. Nevertheless during 1951 there was some transference of building effort to “outstations”, and it is expected that this will continue. 8. The major building project of the department is the replacement of the Sewa Haji Hospital in Dar es Salaam by a 100 bed hospital and training centre, for which the initial plans had to be discarded, largely on account of the cost involved. Towards the end of the year an architect was appointed especially for this work. The future of the Tanga Hospital was also considered and it was decided to rebuild on the present site. A most generous offer of T50,000 for the provision of in-patient accommodation for women and children at Tanga was received from Mr. Christos Galanos during the year. 9. The first complete year of operation of the department under regional decentralization was 1951, and on the whole it has worked satisfactorily. Two factors have affected the efficiency of this system, the first being that the administration is still organized on a provincial basis which means that for one Province in each medical region liaison between the Provincial Commissioner and the Assistant Director of Medical Services has been more difficult. The other has been the serious shortage of competent clerical staff; this has greatly hindered the proper running of the regional offices, and, indeed, of the Depart¬ ment as a whole. The Department has now reached a stage of development at which central control of detailed administration is no longer possible, and the present system affords the best pattern of decentralization for its needs. 10. During the year the post of “District Medical Officer” was brought into being with the object of emphasizing the importance of rural work, which has been much neglected in recent years owing to overriding hospital commit¬ ments. Whilst the medical supervision available to rural areas is still quite inadequate, some improvement has been noted during the year. This has mainly taken the form of integration of the Native Authority rural dispensary system throughout Tanganyika. This system, which provides the major part of the curative services available in rural areas, has grown up through the years on a purely local basis. As is only to be expected, great variations in the quality of the service are to be found in different areas. The orderly development of these services over the country as a whole demands that they shall conform broadly to certain common standards and policies. A beginning has been made towards this. 11. Marked progress has also been made within recent years by the missionary medical services, which contribute an important part to the curative and training resources of the Territory. They receive substantial financial assistance from Government. There have been considerable extensions and improvements to a number of mission hospitals, new centres have been opened and more staff has become available. Unfortunately it is not possible in this report to give an indication of the true extent of these services; it is only of recent years that mission hospitals and dispensaries have been requested to render statistical returns of the work done on the same lines as government 3
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