The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) has accredited a wide range of health facilities many of which are currently ill-staffed. Unfortunately, the few available medical specialists would not want to work in areas other than cities and municipals. For this and other reasons, NHIF in 2012 incepted the Medical Out-reach Program (MO-P). The general objective is the improvement of the quality of health care to the underserved hard-to-reach communities where specialist care is rare or is not available.

 

Expected outcomes of MO-P included: reaching out to 15,000 patients per year, mortality and morbidity reduction, ensure availability of medicines/equipment in local health facilities, knowledge transfer to local health workers, increased consumption of specialized medical services by the disadvantaged populace in rural areas, time re-allocation within the health sector within the Production Possibility Frontier (PPF) and saving massive costs to patients who seek services in Dar es Salaam.

 

The approach involves sending medical specialists stationed in Dar es Salaam to provide services in the mentioned areas whereby NHIF spends USD2,000,000 per year. Since its inception in 2012, over twenty thousand patients have benefited from this programme.