New Medicine Dispensers Certificate Program in Dodoma, Tanzania

The SDC funded Health Promotion and System Strengthening (HPSS) project depends on sufficient health care workers to improve health care services. Baseline surveys revealed a critical shortage of pharmaceutical staff in public health facilities. Up to 96% of staff providing pharmacy services in public health facilities have no basic training in pharmacy; hence informal task shifting is necessary to manage medicines supply. In collaboration with HPSS project, St. John's University of Tanzania has launched a modular one year course for medicine dispensers to address the critical shortage of lower pharmaceutical cadre. The aim of this training programme is to produce adequately trained medicine dispensers who will work in primary health care facilities such as dispensaries, health centres and Accredited Drug Dispensing Outlets (ADDOs). One main objective is to retain this new cadre in rural areas. The Dispenser Certificate course is endorsed by the Pharmacy Council and accredited by the National Council for Technical Education (NACTE) to suit the needs of the health sector of Tanzania.