Healthy Hospitals in Tanzania

A weak economy and rapidly growing population are putting pressure on the healthcare system in Tanzania and hospitals´ capacity in providing safe and adequate healthcare with sufficient infrastructure including buildings, water, waste management and energy. Yet, sufficient health care is a prerequisite for poverty elimination. Through our project at Mkula hospital we are contributing to efficient healthcare in the region with cascading effects on the communities.

Healthy Hospitals is a long-lasting program within EWB-SWE aiming to support hospitals facing infrastructural challenges limiting their capacity to provide safe health care. By finding sustainable and effective technical solutions, we increase access to satisfactory healthcare and reduce mortality. The program started in 2015 in Tanzania at Kolandoto Hospital, and continues with Mkula Hospital from 2017.

Mkula Hospital

Since 2017, we have been collaborating with the Mkula Hospital located in Mkula Village in Northern Tanzania, to address pressing infrastructural and architectural issues in a holistic way in order to provide safe health care. As the only hospital in the district, Mkula Hospital has a catchment area of approx. 204 000 people and 90 patients daily and our activities to develop the health care infrastructure at this hospital contribute to the overall welfare of the local community.

As an early phase of the project, a pre-study and planning have been performed in detail to evaluate and base our support on the local prerequisites including local knowledge levels, climate, geological properties, cultural preferences, availability of materials and technical solutions on site. An overall working process has been established whereof this project aims to address infrastructural challenges with a long-lasting and sustainable outcome.

With the water supply, power supply and wastewater management already addressed, the project is now entering its third and last phase: replacing the current laboratory, which cannot by far meet the needs of the hospital, by building a new one in order to increase the quality and quantity of patient treatment.

Timeline

From 2021

Phase 3: new laboratory

The main activity as part of this project now is to increase the capacity of the hospital - number of patients being treated - as well as improve the quality of treatment by the possibility to carry out different types of analysis by constructing a new laboratory.

The planning for this new building started in 2020 and its design is based on similar laboratory constructions at hospitals in Tanzania as well as preferences of the hospital management team, information collected by architects and engineers in the EWB-SWE project team visiting the project site. 

The new laboratory building will expand the capacity of the laboratory, ultimately increasing the hospital’s patient capacity, but also extend the types of analysis to be carried out on site, reduce the risk of spread of diseases, and provide an improved and safer work environment for the hospital staff. The current building would also make room for other activities and relieve some of the pressure on the hospital to find room to treat more patients. 

2019

Phase 2:  sanitation and waste management

The second phase of the project aimed at improving the infrastructure for sanitation and waste management. Due to sewage malfunctions, most of the indoor toilets at the hospital cannot be used. Furthermore, the hospital is connected to the national grid but experiencing recurring power outages due to the power grid's low standard. The impact on patients´health can be fatal if occurring during a surgery, and the hospital therefore also needed investments in a power supply backup system.

2018

Phase 1: Water pump installation, infrastructural surveying and architectural masterplan

Phase 1 of the project was initiated in ealy 2018 and consisted of a first survey with the help of Mkula Hospital Management Team to understand the hospital's most urgent needs and main challenges. At the same time, a thorough survey of the hospital's infrastructural systems was performed to evaluate its current status, summarize the staff's and hospital management's needs, and recommend further investments and improvements. The project's architects also worked with a new master plan for the hospital to facilitate and plan the hospital's future development and ensure efficient flows of staff, patients and goods.

Supplied only by an old and inefficient windmill groundwater pump not able to provide enough  nor safe water, water shortage was quickly identified as one of the most critical problems. As a result, a new water supply system was designed and implemented. First, a pump house was constructed around the old windmill to protect the borehole and the planned installations and at the same time keep the current water supply system as a backup source. Once the new pump house was finished, a new submersible groundwater pump and national grid electricity power supply were installed. The new water supply system was successfully taken into service during the spring/summer of 2018.

2017

Following the enquiry by Mkula Hospital regarding assistance with infrastructural issues, two on site visits were carried out with the objective to establish the contact with the Hospital Management, plan for the project and introduce the survey team to the hospital and its staff in late 2017.  

Contact:
Susanne Hurtig,
Coordinator, International Projects
susanne.hurtig@ewb-swe.org