MOROGORO.

Health managers and stakeholders in Morogoro region have been urged to work closely with the Medicines Department (MSD), so that together they can resolve and improve the availability of health products in the region, for the welfare of the people and the development of the nation as a whole.

The opinion was given today by the Acting Regional Commissioner of Morogoro, who is the District Commissioner of Morogoro Urban, Hon. Rebeka Nsemwa, while opening a working session of MSD customers and stakeholders in the Dar es Salaam Zone, which brought together health sector leaders at the regional and district levels in the region.

“This region has a total of 378 health care facilities which include sixteen (16) hospitals, including two referral hospitals, forty-six (46) health centers and three hundred and sixteen (316) dispensaries, so work together and discuss the best way to improve the implementation of your responsibilities, and even provide feedback on various issues related to the supply chain of health products.” Emphasised Hon. Nsena

Hon. Nsemwa has urged the leaders to ensure that they have productive discussions by identifying the best way to work together, instead of blaming and pointing fingers, so that each side can fulfill its responsibility in serving the people.

In another step, Hon. Nsemwa has urged the executives to improve their supply of health products, at the facilities they manage each in their area, to avoid the misunderstanding of the lack of health products at the facilities, caused by information that does not match the actual needs.

The health professionals have also been asked to supervise the proper use of health products, for each one has a responsibility to supervise the proper use of health products, in order to bring productivity to the citizens, as the government has been increasing and allocating the budget for medicines and medical equipment to improve the provision of health services.

In addition, Hon. Nsemwa has urged the executives to pay and reduce their debts owed to MSD, in order to increase MSD's ability to serve its clients, due to the health service centers, having an accumulation of debts, thus affecting MSD's performance.

For his part, the Director General of MSD, Mavere Tukai, has presented the process of various improvements to MSD services, by identifying various steps achieved in improving services, and performance, while promising to work on all that was raised during the session in order to jointly improve the availability of health products in the country.

Tukai also outlined how MSD has focused on the process of establishing various health product factories in the country, for example mask factories, hand gloves, and cotton product factories to eliminate dependence on imported products.

The MSD Dar es Salaam Zone Manager, Betia Kaema, thanked the stakeholders for responding to the call and attending the meeting as it showed how eager the stakeholders are to improve the availability of health products in the region, thus promising to take their advice and opinions to improve the performance of the Zone.