Health Ministry outlines budget priority areas

Dar es Salaam. The Ministry of Health has unveiled a Sh1.2 trillion budget for the 2023/24 fiscal year, with priorities aimed at further improving health services in the country.

The budget has increased from the Sh1.1 trillion that was allocated to the docket in the financial year 2022/23.

Presenting the estimates of her ministry yesterday in Parliament, the Minister for Health, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, asked MPs to approve the amount for the year 2023/24.

She said the first priority for the budget will be to strengthen the services of prevention against diseases, including vaccination services, nutritional services, sanitation, and environmental health services, as well as strengthening health services at the community level.

In doing so, what will be implemented includes strengthening the implementation of vaccination interventions for children, for which an amount of Sh114.3 billion (from the main budget) has been allocated.

Another priority, according to Ms Mwalimu’s speech, will be to strengthen the availability and quality of health services provided by public health centres at all levels.

Along with other things, the ministry has planned to build and renovate the infrastructure to be able to provide health services found at the national level to the regional referral hospitals, where Sh91.8 billion has been allocated.

The availability and control of medicines, medical equipment, reagents, and safe blood will also be strengthened at all levels of health care delivery at an estimated budget of Sh205 billion.

In addition, maternal and child health services will be strengthened to reduce maternal and infant deaths at a cost of Sh16.2 billion.

For a long time, many Tanzanians have been forced to travel abroad or go to local cities like Dar es Salaam to seek specialist treatment, but the Ministry of Health has outlined strategies to further strengthen and move such services closer to the people in the year 2023/24.

In that regard, an estimated Sh23 billion has been set aside for, among other things, establishing a programme to cover the high-quality medical services provided by local hospitals.

These programmes include kidney transplants, brain transplants for children, hearing aids for children, and performing brain surgery without opening the skull.

“We will strengthen the infrastructure at the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI), Ocean Road Cancer Institute, Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute, Kibong’oto Special Hospital, Bugando, Mbeya, and Benjamin Mkapa Regional Referral Hospitals,” explained Ms Mwalimu.

The Ministry stated that in order to control pandemics, a budget of Sh20 billion will be used to implement various interventions, including the development of highly infectious disease treatment units.

Likewise, to strengthen the availability of experts in the sector’s intermediate fields, an amount of Sh83 billion has been allocated to help prepare and set a long-term plan for health service providers to meet their needs (human resource planning).

“The total amount of money requested by the Ministry is Shi1.2 trillion to be able to implement the goals set for the fiscal year 2023/24,” said the minister when she was asking the parliamentarians to pass the budget estimates she presented.