Bukoba Municipal Council has completed the construction of the district hospital in an effort to reduce the congestion of patients at Bukoba Referral hospital, Municipal Director Limbakisye Shimwera, disclosed.
Mr Shimwera said the hospital, located at Nshambya Ward, in Bukoba Municipality will serve as an Out-Patient department (OPD) comprising eight wards and added that for quite a long time, patients reporting at Bukoba Referral Hospital were not getting treated on time.
Bukoba Referral Hospital faces an acute shortage of medical experts, forcing one doctor to attend over 50,000 patients far beyond the average standard set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Medical Officer-in-Charge for Bukoba Referral Hospital, Dr Juma Nyakina, said the hospital is in urgent need of six specialist doctors and ten medical officers. According to Dr Nyakina, the number of in-patients admitted at Bukoba Referral Hospital increased from 15,254 during 2011 to 15,933 patients, last year a 12.5 per cent increase.
Meanwhile, Bukoba District Council constructed six dispensaries during 2012/13. Bukoba District Chairman, Dauda Kateme listed the Wards as Butelankuzi, Ruhunga, Kikomero, Izimbya, Bugabo (Kishanje) and Kyamulaire (Mashule).
He said medical experts and drugs had already been dispatched to the respective dispensaries. In a separate development, Bukoba District Council is constructing two special Secondary schools to cost over 432.1m/-.
Bujugangoma, in Katerero Ward will cost over 192.3m/- and Nyakibimbiri, in Nyakibimbiri Ward will cost over 239.7m/- upon completion. He noted that the schools will have essential facilities including science laboratories for teachers’ living quarters, water and an adequate number of classrooms,” he said.
Mr Kateme said the two schools aim at providing quality education. He appealed to residents in Bukoba to cooperate by donating building materials and ensure that the materials were not vandalised.
By MEDDY MULISA, Tanzania Daily News