Dar es Salaam. Health minister Mohamed Mchengerwa, yesterday called for the review of salaries and benefits for public health workers, citing wide and unjustified pay disparities among staff with similar academic qualifications.
Speaking in Dar es Salaam during the inauguration of the Ocean Road Cancer Institute (ORCI), he said the Health ministry will collaborate with the Prime Minister’s OfficeRegional Administration and Local Government (Tamisemi) in the review. Mr Mchengerwa added that it was unacceptable for a specialist doctor employed under Tamisemi to earn significantly less than a mid-level doctor working at the Health ministry.
“It is also neither logical nor acceptable for a doctor who has spent between 10 and 15 years in training to earn the same as a mid-level practitioner. This is not about favouring anyone; it is about fairness and sustainability in the health sector,” he said.
He said the government was attentive to concerns raised by health workers and ready to take measures aimed at improving their working conditions and the quality of services delivered to the public. Health workers, Mr Mchengerwa stressed, are the backbone of the national health system and should be recognised through remuneration and benefits that reflect their workload, responsibilities and working environment.
“The review is intended to boost morale and productivity, improve the quality of health services and make the public health sector more attractive to professionals, thereby reducing the shift to private practice.” The minister added that applying different pay scales to doctors under the Ministry of Health and those employed by Tamisemi was inequitable and counterproductive, noting that the anomaly must be corrected.
“I’m asking the Permanent Secretaries of the Ministry of Health and Tamisemi to take immediate steps and conduct a comprehensive review of doctors’ remuneration, factoring in education, specialisation and sub-specialisation,” he said. Mr Mchengerwa said recommendations from the two offices would be submitted to his ministry before being forwarded to President Samia Suluhu Hassan for further consideration.
He added that the initiative was in line with the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) policies and election manifesto, as well as President Samia’s commitment to strengthening healthcare as a pillar of social and economic development. Earlier, ahead of the board’s inauguration, a representative of the Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary, Dr Omary Ugubuyu, said Tanzania records about 45,000 new cancer cases each year, with an estimated 30,000 related deaths.
He said the government, in collaboration with various stakeholders, had intensified community outreach programmes to encourage early screening and treatment. “Just as was the case with HIV/Aids in the past, fear initially discouraged people from testing.
Today that has changed. We must similarly address fear and misconceptions surrounding cancer so that people seek treatment early,” he said.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the ORCI Board of Trustees, Prof Ephata Kaaya, said the institute had strengthened its diagnostic capacity through the acquisition of modern medical equipment that is already in use. “In the past, the institute could only attend to a limited number of patients per day.
Currently, it can serve between five and six patients daily, with a target of exceeding 20 patients per day by June this year,” he said. .