Muhimbili installs key cancer facility
What you need to know:
- The facility, which is known as the Whole Slide Scanner, was unveiled yesterday in Dar es Salaam and is expected to cut down the waiting time for cancer test results from two weeks to three days.
Dar es Salaam. Cancer patients at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) will now spend less time to receive results of their medical tests following the installation of a new Sh308 million diagnostic facility.
The facility, which is known as the Whole Slide Scanner, was unveiled yesterday in Dar es Salaam and is expected to cut down the waiting time for cancer test results from two weeks to three days.
Experts reading the medical tests using the new facility will now be able to access details from any part of the world through a computerised system, details from MNH show.
The permanent secretary (PS) of the ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr Mpoki Ulisubisya, said the diagnostic equipment will make cancer diagnosis easy for the country’s 18 pathologists. The PS officiated the launch of the facility at the MNH in the presence of the chief medical officer and director of the Centre for Global Health at ASCP, Dr Danny Milner. The facility was donated by the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP).
Dr Mpoki said: “With the rise of cancer burden in the country, the limited infrastructure for cancer diagnosis and treatment compounded by an uneven number of trained cancer diagnosis experts including pathologists, is markedly noticeable.”
He said that to date, Tanzania has 18 pathologists only who are practicing in five public hospitals.
“The workload of the pathologists is a cause for concern when it comes to quality and timely delivery of results, especially, for some difficult and challenging cases,’’ he pointed out.
“Sometimes it necessitates getting a second opinion from outside the country, which usually takes weeks to months for feedback,’’ he further revealed.
“This contributes to delays in initiating planned treatment for our cancer patients in a timely manner; delay in getting a diagnosis and delay of actually initiating cancer treatment after diagnosis,’’ he pointed out.
MNH’s executive director Prof Lawrence Museru said the facility would boost the provision of health services at the hospital.
