Scale up of anaesthesia services in underserved rural Tanzania.

Background: Because of critical shortage of physician anaesthesiologists, the government of Tanzania adopted a task shifting strategy for provision of anaesthesia services. This paper describes the results of an operational study designed to increase the number of anaesthesia providers for emergency obstetric surgeries in order to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality in underserved rural Tanzania.

Methods: In 2016 a before-after cohort study was conducted in seven health centres in rural Tanzania.

Building leadership and managerial capacity for maternal and newborn health services.

Background: Strengthening leadership and management is important for building an effective and efficient health system. This paper presents the findings from a L&M capacity building initiative which was implemented as part of a larger study aimed at improving maternal and newborn outcomes within primary health facilities in the Morogoro, Tanzania.

Methods: The initiative, involving 30 stakeholders from 20 primary health facilities, 4 council health management teams and the regional health management team in the Morogoro region, provided leadership and managerial training through two 5-day in-person workshops, onsite mentoring, and e-learning modules.

Factors affecting production of competent health workforce in Tanzanian health training institutions: a cross sectional study.

Background: In 2008, the government of Tanzania adopted a competency-based education and training (CBET) system to improve medical training. Yet there are still frequent observations of competency deficits among graduates, suggesting that the goal has not sufficiently been met. This study was designed to assess the underlying context of competency deficits in the health workforce in Tanzania and to provide recommendations for improvement.

Improving access to emergency obstetric care in underserved rural Tanzania: a prospective cohort study.

Background: One of the key strategies to reducing maternal mortality is provision of emergency obstetric care services. This paper describes the results of improving availability of, and access to emergency obstetric care services in underserved rural Tanzania using associate clinicians.

Methods: A prospective cohort study of emergency obstetric care was implemented in seven health centres in Morogoro region, Tanzania from July 2016 to June 2019.

Scale up and strengthening of comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care in Tanzania.

Introduction: In Tanzania, inadequate access to comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care (CEmONC) services is the major bottleneck for perinatal care and results in high maternal and perinatal mortality. From 2015 to 2019, the Accessing Safe Deliveries in Tanzania project was implemented to study how to improve access to CEmONC services in underserved rural areas.

Methods: A five-year longitudinal cohort study was implemented in seven health centres (HCs) and 21 satellite dispensaries in Morogoro region.