Tanzania

The Polish Centre for International Aid Foundation supports the development of medical rescue in Tanzania. Thanks to the foundation’s projects, rescuers are gaining new competencies, more people can provide first and specialized assistance, and the system is changing.

At the end of 2021, in Tanzania (population 63 million), only 73 emergency doctors were working in the national health service. There is a shortage of paramedics and most hospitals do not have Hospital Emergency Departments (EDs) or they are inadequately equipped.

Emergency medical services

From 2022. The PCPM Foundation is supporting the development of the emergency medicine sector in Tanzania, in the region of the country’s largest city, Dar es Salam. Emergency medical technician is a new profession in the country. The first graduates completed their training in Emergency Medicine ten years ago. Thanks to the foundation’s projects, lifeguards are gaining new competencies, more people can give first and specialized help and the system is changing. The foundation trains rescuers and instructors. The instructors will be able to prepare more medics for the profession themselves. Modern medical equipment has also been delivered to hospitals.

In Tanzania, emergency medicine is just starting to develop and there is no such thing as a pre-hospital stage. Many activities that could be done long before the patient reaches the hospital, in Tanzania are only carried out in hospital. This is why it is so important that staff are well trained. It often happens that patients arrive at the emergency department in a much worse condition than if they had received proper care before reaching the hospital

Paweł Suprynowicz, medical instructor

Training

The aim of the project is to be done by the end of 2024. The Foundation will train a total of 1,800 doctors and nurses from Dar Es-Salaam’s main medical facilities. The medics will be trained in emergency medicine and life-saving techniques based on American Heart Association (AHA) standards.

A cadre of dozens of Tanzanian medical instructors will be prepared to teach pre-hospital care themselves.

In Dar Es-Salaam, 150 emergency services officers, including firefighters, will be trained in basic first aid, and their home units equipped with modern first aid kits

Hospital equipment

In 2023. The PCPM Foundation has purchased and transported to Tanzania an advanced phantom for teaching CPR, which replicates a full-sized adult. Three infant phantoms have also been purchased. Three government hospitals in Dar es Salaam, one in Mwanza, and the Aga Khan Foundation hospital and clinics received modern emergency department equipment such as patient monitors, ultrasound sets, infusion pumps, resuscitation boards and stabilization splints, and video laryngoscopes.

As part of the project, the Foundation is building a training center for medics at The Aga Khan Health Service Hospital (AKHST) in the country’s largest city, Dar es Salaam. This will be a state-of-the-art center throughout the country, equipped with professional training equipment.

The PCPM project is being funded by the Polish Aid program of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs of PLN 4,923,722.