Assessments of the impact of road traffic accident victims on the health care delivery and preparedness at Amana Hospital, Ilala municipality. Dar es salaam

Abstract

Introduction: Road traffic injuries are on increasing in developing countries this leads to a negative impact in service provisions especially in resource constrained countries like Tanzania. Road traffic accidents exert a large burden on Tanzania’s health care services. Health care facilities are poorly equipped to provide needed services. The broad objective was to assess the impact of road traffic accident victims on health care delivery and preparedness of the Amana hospital

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study using interviews, observations and review of attendance register for OPD. The study was conducted at Amana hospital in Ilala Municipality in Dar es Salaam. Sampling was not done; instead all head of sections handling RTA cases were interviewed.

Results: The study has revealed an upward trend of motor traffic accidents victims attended at Amana hospital from July to December 2011. This trend has imposed heavy work load to the hospital especially to health personnel. The bed occupancy rate for RTA cases was 500% indicate that the surgical ward section allocated for RTA cases was highly overloaded. Eighty six percent and 73%of supplies and equipments were respectively available. These results indicate that the facility was fair prepared to handle trauma cases from road traffic accidents because most of the items needed for management of injuries were available. Seventy one percent and 80% of infrastructure and personnel were respectively available. This indicates that Amana hospital was adequately staffed to handle the majority of RTA Cases.

Conclusion: RTA is still a public health problem at Amana hospital. Much needs to be done to slow or reverse the trend by; a)ensuring uninterrupted supplies; availability of adequate equipment ,infrastructure and trained personnel b) ) To ascertain the number of beds to be allocated for RTA cases,