Health Care, Disease Control, Crime and Safety in Tanzania

The national health care system of Tanzania has a pyramidal structure that prioritizes primary care at affordable costs to majority of the people. This structure consists of the Village Health Service, Dispensary Service, Health Center Service, District Hospital, Regional Hospital, and Referral or Consultant Hospital. The government fully supports the system for improved delivery of health services through continuing programs that identify prevailing health problems and concerns and disseminate information on how to control the problems.

The Village Health Service, which is the lowest level of health care service delivery, consists of a Village Health Post with two village health workers providing preventive services for residents. The Dispensary Service supervises all Village Health Posts under its ward or control, while the Health Center Service serves the population of an administrative division of about 50,000 people. The District Hospital is designated and supported by the government for each of the country’s 99 districts.

Offering additional services not provided at the District Hospital is the Regional Hospital in each of the country’s 26 regions, which has specialists in various fields of the medical profession. At the bottom of the structure but is the highest level of health care services is the Referral or Consultant Hospital that has the best medical facilities not offered in the lower hospitals. The country has four such hospitals, which are the Muhimbili National Hospital that serves the eastern zone; Kilimajaro Christian Medical Center for the northern zone; Bugando Hospital that caters to the western zone; and the Mbeya Hospital that serves the country’s southern highlands.