Annual report of the Medical Department / Tanganyika Territory.

  • Tanganyika. Medical Department.
Date:
[1951]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Department / Tanganyika Territory. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/84 (page 1)
    Annual Report of the Medical Department for the year 1951 PART I I.—A GENERAL REVIEW The year 1951 has been one of planning and preparation rather than one in which there have been any marked advances in the scope or quality of the nedical services available to the population of Tanganyika. During and since the last World War the chief limitation upon the expansion of these services las been the lack of trained men and women in every field of medicine; this shortage has influenced the development of the Government medical services, mission medical services, and the services provided by commercial and indus- ;rial organizations for their employees. 2. Since the end of the war Tanganyika has embarked upon a period of levelopment, the tempo of which is increasing rather than slackening; this levelopment has been undertaken at a time of considerable economic difficul- iies and in the face of serious shortages of skilled manpower and materials. In common with other departments of Government, the Medical Department las had to cope with a much enlarged demand on all the services which it provides and has met this demand as best it could with the handicaps of inadequate buildings, inadequate facilities, equipment, transport and inade¬ quate staff. 3. The public expects doctors to treat illness, and therefore the first call m the various fields of activity of the department, at this stage, is on the mrative services. A study of the volume of curative work undertaken shows that this has increased steadily since the setting up of the British Administra¬ tion in Tanganyika. This is only to be expected in a country which is still in an early stage of development. But it is not always realized that, during ind since the war, this expansion has continued without a parallel increase in staff of the department; indeed, in some years the staff has been less than it was in preceding years. The increased call for curative work has been met lartly by increased effort on the part of the staff and partly by curtailment if other services which, although equally important, are not so much in the public eye and which have not the immediate urgency of suffering. l