Benjamin Mkapa hospital gets Sh300m medical equipment

Dodoma. Benjamin Mkapa Hospital as received a boost of medical equipment worth Sh300 million to help patients with sight impairment.

The equipment was handled over on Monday by two families on behalf of the Latter Days Saints (LDS) Church based in Mombasa, Kenya.

Present at the event were Jesse Hynsaker and Elder Jensen from England accompanied by their wives.

Speaking after donating the medical equipment, Mr Hynsaker who is an optician, said the equipment money was raised in their church without involving external sources.

He said the decision was reached to compliment the Tanzanian government’s effort to construct Dodoma state of the art hospital.

“I’m an optician as well and I have been practising the profession for a long time. I chose to become an optician to be in a better position of serving people from eye problems,” he said.

For his part, the hospital acting director, Mr Keissy Shija, besides thanking the donors, said the equipment would help them accommodate many patients from all parts of the country.

He said 80 per cent of the patients with visual impairment could escape the total loss of sight upon receiving better treatment with modern machines.

According to him, so far the hospital has received 5,000 patients with severe visual impairment from Dodoma since the optic department was launched.

“These statistics means that here is a big problem as it is known that we are leading the list of regions with a large number of people suffering from visual impairment. So, the medical equipment help us attend to many patients with visual impairment,” he said.

Director of Nursing Salome Kasanga said they were still in short of medical equipment at the hospital so they needed more support to enable them meet their targets.

“Although we have enough experts at the optic department, there is a shortage in other departments and divisions,” she explained.