Dar es Salaam is unquestionably the epicenter and the hub of human activities in Tanzania. Its strategic location in business, employment and recreation has attracted residence of over 10% of Tanzanian population. Even though it is not the country’s capital currently almost all the diplomatic offices, governmental and Nongovernmental institutions are headquartered in Dar es Salaam hence creating a meandering ground for both national and international migrants.
Ideally
the population size should concurrently grow along with infrastructures, this
includes health facilities. Sadly this is not the reality for Dar es Salaam.
The health facilities in Dar es Salaam are extremely overloaded than the
general average for distribution in Tanzania based on population. Accordance to huru Map statistics based on 2014
research, one dispensary in Dar es Salaam is burdened with 12,952 people while
the country’s average distribution is one dispensary to 7,596 people. One health center
in Dar es Salaam serves 112,365 people as one health center in Tanzania serve
62,662 people.
There are approximately seven hospitals in Dar es salaam,
with the population in Dar, if all residents depend on these seven hospitals
then one hospital will serve 593,928 people while one hospital in Tanzania
serves 170,832 people, therefore demand for health services in Dar is huge than
the rest of the country. Moreover one clinic serves 1,039,375 people in Dar es
Salaam while one clinic serves 255,278 people in Tanzania.
There is challenge
when it comes to distribution of Health workers across the
country; with over 4 million people residing in this city, one medical officer
in Dar es salaam attends to 42,423 people while the same officer in Tanzania
attend to an average of 26,290 people, a clinical assistant in Dar es
Salaam attends to 83,150 people while the same clinical assistant should attend
to 36,948 people in rest of the country. One assistant medical officer in Dar
es Salaam attends to 57,743 people while the same assistant should attend to
25,866 people in Tanzania, one nutrition officer who works in Dar es Salaam
should attend to 1,385,833 people and the same officer should attend to 748,815
people in the whole country.
Another factor
stressing the need of allocating more health centers in Dar es Salaam
especially clinic and hospitals with health specialists is the ratio of traffic
and crime incidents, 8 deaths occur in every 100,000 population in Dar es
salaam which is exact the same figures in Tanzania. Number of road accidents is
about two-fifths to the figure of Tanzania; number of deaths caused by road
accidents in Dar es Salaam is about 10% of same kind of deaths in Tanzania.
The above facts
press an urgent alarm to the government and health stakeholders to respond to
this matter without delay. Health security is a vital element towards
development of any kind. By considering the contribution of Dar es Salaam to
the national income, improvement of health facilities in the
city becomes crucial.
