The Results
When a problem is as large and complex as the health care crisis in Africa, and so many different organizations and governments are working to solve it, the impact of any individual or group can be difficult to measure.
The Touch Foundation measures our impact in both quantitative and qualitative ways, in the following areas:
Training health workers
With our support, Weill Bugando's university has grown over the last four years from ten M.D. students to over eight hundred students across eight disciplines.
Our work enabled this growth by:
- providing student housing
- funding comprehensive student scholarships
- funding university operations
- hiring and supporting new faculty and staff
- designing and funding visiting doctors
- creating clinical teaching space in the hospital
Improving hospital infrastructure
We have invested in a foundation for quality patient care at Bugando Medical Centre by undertaking ongoing analysis and capacity building to develop a strategic plan for the university and teaching hospital, and a master plan for future hospital renovations and improvements. These activities will lead to better sanitation and infection control throughout the hospital, enable higher quality patient care and prepare the hospital to launch new specialized programs.
To meet immediate needs, we provided electrical generators and a system of water pumps to ensure that the 850-bed hospital has a reliable source of water and power.
Building management capacity
We are working with the current leadership at the two Bugando institutions to develop management skills and practices to inspire staff and create efficient, streamlined processes. Stronger leadership and management capacity are enabling the Bugando institutions to exercise stronger leadership and resolve.
Expected Future Impact
National growth of the health workforce
As Tanzania makes the investments we recommend to increase the number of health workers trained across the country, the workforce will grow, providing more Tanzanians with access to skilled health care providers.
Saving lives through improved diagnostics
Our investment, in partnership with the Abbott Fund, to improve productivity and quality of diagnostic services in the Weill Bugando laboratory, will result in fewer diagnostic errors, more rapid assessment, and more effective treatment of patients.
Saving lives through improved access to health care
As access to health care grows, patients will be treated before their conditions become severe, and are therefore more likely to survive.
This is clearly true for childbirth-related deaths; as the percentage of births attended by a skilled health worker increases, maternal death falls. For example, UNICEF estimates that in Tanzania, 43 percent of births are attended by a skilled health worker, and a woman faces a 1 in 24 risk of dying as a result of childbirth or complications in pregnancy in her lifetime. In Gabon, a sub-Saharan African country where health workers attend births twice as often (86 percent), the lifetime risk of maternal death is cut in half (1 in 53).
We are impatient to reach these long-range results – to help Tanzania to meet the Millennium Development Goals and national targets for equitable access to healthcare – but we know better than to skip any steps. Only with a strong foundation can the system grow sustainably, to address both the serious challenges Tanzania faces today, and the yet unknown challenges of the future.