Hospital equipment, trainings. PCPM develops emergency medicine in Tanzania
Thanks to the support of the Polish Centre for International Aid, some hospitals in Tanzania can provide treatment according to European standards. Poland provides Tanzanians with medical training and appropriate equipment.
More than 2,000 people trained in Tanzania
The PCPM Foundation has built and equipped a Tanzanian-Polish Emergency Medicine Training Centre in Dar es Salaam, the country’s largest city with a population of more than 6 million. By the end of 2024, the Poles plan to train more than 2,000 doctors and nurses and 150 public servants – firefighters, police officers, paramedics, and scouts.
The Polish instructors we cooperate with teach Tanzanians first aid, child and adult CPR, AED defibrillator use, trauma patient management and emergency ultrasound use.
Adam Kuklinski
Beneficiaries of the training include the emergency department of Chanika Hospital in the suburbs of Dar es Salaam. Its head Rose Mtangi assesses that, thanks to help from Poland, local doctors are able to assist according to European standards.
Before, it often happened that we did not know how to help the patient, we did not know how to examine him properly, how to diagnose him. I have been working in this hospital for seven years, and I am aware of the problems and shortcomings we face here. Even the most basic things are a problem, because we lack equipment, facilities. Fortunately, thanks to help from Poland, the situation has improved significantly.
Rose Mtangi
PCPM equips hospitals in Tanzania
In addition to training, the PCPM foundation is equipping Tanzanian hospitals and clinics with medical equipment. As part of the project, seven medical facilities in this African country have received phantoms, choking waistcoats and training devices for intravenous insertion and hemorrhage control. Tanzanian hospitals have also been equipped by the Poles with diagnostic equipment – ultrasound sets, ECG machines, patient monitors, intravenous infusion equipment, oxygen therapy equipment, and equipment for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and intubation.
Aid was delivered to hospitals in two largest cities in Tanzania – Dar es Salaam, located in the south-east, and Mwanza, located in the north.
Many of the hospitals do not have the basic equipment to rescue victims of emergencies, such as car accidents, falls from heights or severe work injuries. Until recently, there were only 73 emergency doctors working in the national health service. And we are talking about a country much larger and bigger population than Poland.
Adam Kukliński
Paramedic is a new profession in Tanzania – the first graduates in emergency medicine graduated just 10 years ago. PCPM projects enable paramedics to acquire new competencies, which significantly improves the quality and availability of first and specialized medical assistance in the country. Not only lifeguards are being trained, but also instructors who will prepare more medics for the profession themselves.
The activities of the PCPM in Tanzania were recognized by President Andrzej Duda during an official visit in February 2024. One of the items on the agenda was a visit to the Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam, which the Polish Centre for International Aid is retrofitting and where it provides training.
“These trainings, which have already been implemented for almost two years, have already brought the first great results in the form of a decrease in the number of deaths in emergency wards, where there are already instructors, staff and medical personnel who have been trained as part of our development action,’ President Andrzej Duda said at the time.
The project implemented by the PCPM is financed by the ‘Polish Aid’ program run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The value of the project implemented in Tanzania is PLN 4.9 million.
source: PAP
