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In their painstaking efforts to attract foreign patients and ease the plight of local patients seeking treatment abroad, the ALMC and The Aga Khan Hospital signed the agreement to create a synergy between the two world-class medical care facilities in fostering provision of global standard healthcare service for chronic illness patients.

The memorandum of understanding between the two institutions which was signed by the ALMC and The Aga Khan Health Services CEOs, Elisha Twisa and Sisawo Konteh, respectively indicates that they will also collaborate in provision of referral and other specialized healthcare-related services.

Under the deal, both health facilities have agreed to cooperate in quality assurance and accreditation procedures in order to uplift the ALMC into a full-fledged centre of excellence, specialized healthcare services and exchange programmes.

Other key areas of collaboration cover capacity building and training, research and development, resource mobilisation that includes project designs and business development as well as outreach programmes.

Aga Khan Hospital offers training for medical doctors to be specialists in international medicine, second family medicine, third general surgeries, fourth obstetrics and gynaecology as well as fifth paediatrics.

“The essence of this MoU, among others, is to relieve the chronic disease patients with a burden of seeking treatment abroad, as from now they will be treated either at the ALMC in Arusha or at The Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam. We are going to offer them a cutting-edge medical care with the global benchmarks to ease the country’s medical tourism bill,” said ALMC’s CEO, Elisha Twisa.

Currently, the annual medical tourism bill for East African region which includes Tanzania, stands at U$150 million, up from U$60 million in 2010, with the majority of patients seeking heart, kidney, and cancer treatment.

“This kind of pollination partnership will guarantee patients the highest quality healthcare services of international standards within the country and will lower the medical tourism bill. With the professional exchange of best practises, it’s possible,” Twisa explained.

Twisa said that the ALMC hospital is well equipped in terms of state-of-the-arts equipment coupled with qualified healthcare staff including 21 medical specialists, the highest number indeed compared to its peers.

The hospital runs an advanced emergency medicine department, performing laparoscopic surgeries, Nephrology and Dialysis, Neurosurgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and a well-equipped NICU, Orthopedics, Radiology that include CT-Scanning, palliative care among others.

In remarks after the signing ceremony, The Aga Khan Health Services’ CEO, Konteh, termed the agreement as a critical milestone in healthcare service provision, as it brings the two world-class private hospitals together to complement each other in their quest to offer the highest quality of specialized health care for the people of Tanzania. “We are looking forward to witnessing a very fruitful collaboration in healthcare service provision. This agreement will be a game changer in driving the country’s medical tourism,” Konteh said.

In 2018, expansion of the ALMC transformed the institution into a world-class health care facility. A leading 170-bed teaching and tertiary care referral hospital enabled it to provide a significantly higher level of specialised care combining cutting-edge technology with highly skilled human resources.

On the other hand, The Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam is the only hospital in the country with the prestigious gold standard quality accreditation from Joint Commission International (JCI) as well as ISO 9001 for complying with strict criteria such as in-patient safety, delivery of clinical care and overall patient support.