THE government is seeking funds to employ 137,000 community healthcare workers in the next few years to plug an extensive gap in the availability of medical auxiliaries.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan made this affirmation in Dar es Salaam yesterday when wrapping up the third symposium of the Mkapa Legacy Summit organised by the Benjamin Mkapa Foundation (BMF). 

The closing session was also attended by Zanzibar President Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi, BMF patrons and Anna Mkapa, widow of the late former president, alongside top government officials and retired former aides to the late national leader 

The president said that the process of recruiting the base-level medical cadres has been completed at the council level, with training for the first group starting within August at health colleges countrywide.

Other steps to create employment for health sector workers include sounding out various countries to identify any need for such workers, she said, noting an affirmation by the BMF CEO that the first group of 200 nurses has already gone and started working. The second group is being prepared, she said.

Medical staff and specialists with the foundation will be considered in plans for 2024/25 permit issuance, for those in the field and within the BMF administrative structure.

The president appealed to the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Health (Mainland and Zanzibar), the Regional Administration and Local Governments (PO-RALG)I secretariat, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology as well as the Treasury to work with private benefactors to strengthen staffing for national human resources for health (HRH) teams.

PMO needs to work on HRH teams to form a Blockchain working together to solve prevailing challenges, she stated, demanding that surveys be carried out on what part of unemployed qualified people can be enrolled in the health sector with existing demand.

Ireland ambassador Mary O'Neill said Mkapa’s legacy is still to be remembered for his commitment to fighting poverty, economic uplift and strengthening international relations while praising efforts to develop the Tanzania Vision 2050.

She said that achievements in human capital investment led to achieving objectives of sustainable and inclusive development especially for girls’ education, while Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu stated that 9bn/- has been injected into the health sector for selected needs.

She highlighted achievements under the Samia scholarships and health super specialization scholarship programme where 1462 experts were trained and 708 graduates enrolled in the public sector.

Dr Faustine Ndugulile, a former Health deputy minister seeking the position of Africa regional director at the World Health Organisation (WHO) commended achievements made in the sector, asking the government to think of volunteering as healthcare workers in all new hiring.

The conference came at a crucial time when Tanzania is striving to address the human resource gaps in health delivery and driving a transformative process to attain a resilient health system for sustainable development.

The global shortage of healthcare workers threatens healthcare access, and Tanzania is no exception, while efforts to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) are hindered by the critical lack of skilled health professionals as outlined in the recent HRH profile, officials said in preliminary remarks.