At a ceremony, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, United Republic of Tanzania, and Abbott Fund commemorated the latest step in a nationwide initiative to upgrade Tanzania's health care system, laying the cornerstone for the first of 23 hospital laboratories to be built or modernized across the country. The laboratory at AmanaRegionalHospital is the first of four laboratories targeted in 2008, with the remaining laboratories scheduled for completion by 2010.
"We have ambitious treatment goals for the more than 2 million people living with HIV in Tanzania, as well as broader challenges in meeting the needs of people who require long-term monitoring and care for diseases like diabetes," said Hon. David Mwaykusa, Minister of Health and Social Welfare, United Republic of Tanzania. "Modern hospital laboratories are the building blocks for successful treatment, and we are grateful and excited to work with Abbott Fund on this project."
The Regional Laboratory Modernization Project is an innovative partnership between Abbott Fund and the Government of Tanzania that will construct a flexibly designed, standardized modern lab in 23 regional and district hospitals across Tanzania. These larger laboratories provide support for 77 district hospitals, improving health care for millions of people across the country.
"This laboratory improvement project is an important part of our continued partnership with the Government of Tanzania to make sustainable improvements to the health care system in Tanzania," said Catherine V. Babington, president, Abbott Fund. "We're improving the delivery of quality care for Tanzanians by upgrading testing services that are critical for the prevention and treatment of diabetes, heart disease, HIV/AIDS and many other conditions."
Resource-limited health care systems, including a lack of modern hospital laboratories, continue to be a key barrier to providing quality care for hospital patients across Tanzania. A 2002 public health assessment conducted by the Ministry of Health and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that the limited capacity of laboratories in Tanzania was one of the weakest links in the provision of quality HIV/AIDS services.
Ground was broken in mid-July to begin construction of the new laboratory at AmanaHospital. More than 1,500 patients are seen each day at this busy city hospital. Space in the existing laboratory is extremely limited, making it difficult to meet growing patient needs and forcing staff to put in significant overtime to process the average daily workload of tests for up to 500 patients. It is estimated that the new laboratory capacity will be tripled following improvements, allowing patients and physicians same-day access to lab results.
In addition to the work being conducted at Amana, it is anticipated that modernization will be completed at regional laboratories in Dodoma, Kagera and Tanga by the end of 2008. The project is estimated to cost more than US $10 million by its 2010 completion.
Public-private partnerships have been an essential part of the program. Abbott Fund and Design 4 Others (D4O), a US-based not-for-profit initiative of the global science and technology design firm CUH2A, are working together with the Government of Tanzania to provide a standardized design that will ensure that patients across the country have the same quality of diagnostic testing. Consulting input is also a key to the program's success, with important expertise provided by the U.S. CDC - Tanzania and the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL).
"The health care system improvements supported by the Abbott Fund will help extend US Government efforts to improve the health of the Tanzanian people," said Hon. Mark Green, US Ambassador to Tanzania. "The modernized laboratory at Amana will serve patients seen at the new HIV care and treatment centre funded by PEPFAR, which is a clear reflection of how governments and the private sector can work together for the common good."
The nationwide Regional Laboratory Modernization Project expands on extensive earlier lab work by Abbott Fund at MuhimbiliNationalHospital in Dar es Salaam, and the work completed in 2007 to modernize the laboratory at Mt.MeruRegionalHospital. The improvements and training at Mt.Meru have resulted in a tripling of the laboratory's testing capacity from 45 to 150 patients per day, a nine-fold increase annually in number of tests processed, a dramatic reduction in turnaround time and increased health worker productivity. The work at Mt.Meru provided a model and proof of concept that a nationwide laboratory modernization program was possible.