It is obvious that due its high costs, implementation of the health programmes by any government requires additional funds in the health sector budget.
Due to this factor, the government of Tanzania decided to establish the Community Health Fund, (CHF), in 1995 aimed at ensuring that its citizens, especially those residing in rural areas are subject to good health services.
After its establishment, the enrolment of the CHF members was very slow, lowering the registration by 75 percent of the set national targets. The set back in enrolling new members led to the Netherlands based Non-Governmental Organisation, PharmAccess to take deliberate steps that were meant to improve the community health fund, the decision which have started to bear fruits.
PharmAccess implements community health programmes in Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania. Its aims among others are to improve health services in sub Saharan Africa, including providing care to people living with HIV.
The programme also aims at improving the areas which CHF conducts its operations to create a better understanding among CHF service providers in the concerned countries.
In Tanzania, PharmAccess has come up with a programme meant to improve the CHF known as the Improved Community Health Fund, (iCHF). This programme was launched for the first time in the country, in Siha District, Kilimanjaro Region, towards the end of 2014. In this programme, a member is required to
Speaking recently during iCHF Stakeholders Meeting, NHIF’s Kilimanjaro Regional Manager Fidelis Shauritanga who is also responsible of managing the iCHF Programme, said that the target was to ensure that 50 per cent of the people in Kilimanjaro region were registered with the health insurance fund institutions by the end of 2016.
He noted that each member can get all medical services within Siha district and that the future plans was to make sure that members can easily access health services anywhere within Kilimanjaro region. For his part, PharmAccess Project Director Dr Heri Marwa said that the project started by serving coffee farmers through their cooperative societies.
He said that unlike in the past when the project was meant to serve coffee farmers, however, the improved version of the programme has no boundaries and that everybody anybody in the community can become a member. He has urged people to join the iCHF health programme because its costs are low and affordable to for common people to get health services.
Dr Marwa further noted that iCHF provides basic health services to common diseases such as malaria tests and drugs prescriptions and other various chronic diseases such as asthma, hypertension, diabetes and rheumatism. He said that unlike in the past iCHF programme will ensure there is availability of medication drugs in health providing centres in accordance with the guidelines of the ministry of health and social welfare.
The PharmAccess Director from the Headquarters in the Netherlands, Sicco Van Gelder, said that their programme which started by providing services to coffee farmers only was now extended to other members of the community.
The iCHF project is one of the most significant contributions by PharmAccess to the people of Tanzania due to the fact that high costs of health services is one of the major challenges facing many people especially those living in rural areas.
“The iCHF programme will help community members who were failing to access better medical services due to high cost, to access them at lower costs,” he noted.
Meanwhile, the government in Kilimanjaro region has promised to ensure all people who have enrolled in the ‘Improved Community Health Fund’ (iCHF) programme get quality health services from the various public and private health centres available in the region.
Speaking when opening the iCHF stakeholder’s meeting in Moshi recently the Kilimanjaro Regional Commissioner (RC), Amos Makalla said that serious measures will be taken against health officers who were treating patients unprofessionally.
“As you all knows, health insurance agenda for all people is one of the crucial agenda in the fifth government of President Dr John Magufuli, so let me use this opportunity to congratulate PharmAccess and National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) for their programmes they have introduced in this region to improve iCHF,” he explained.
For their part, both Siha and Moshi District Commissioners, Dr Charles Mlingwa and Novatus Makunga concurred with their RC for commending efforts to improve the health of the people in their respective areas. During the meeting, some people who used their time to influence other people to enroll with the iCHF programme were awarded with certificates, and one of them was awarded a motorbike.
James Lanka is a Science and Environmental Journalist E-mail:jlanka6@gmail.com
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