In 2015, the Diocese implemented its plans to build Mtandi dispensary.   The original motivation was to provide medicines to community members suffering from HIV.

 Today, as the HIV epidemic has diminished in severity, Mtandi dispensary mainly serves mothers and small children. 

Mtandi dispensary is currently being subsidised out of the General Funds of the Diocese.  This is because, under PPP, the government will only pay the salaries of qualified people who have undergone courses at recognised institutions.

At the moment, Mtandi dispensary is being managed by Baraka Mlowola, who is a clinical officer. 

Due to health service demand of the patients who get treatment and seek more advanced medical advice at the dispensary, there is pressure to upgrade the facility from a dispensary to a higher level of medical care.

This is because the government restricts dispensaries to performing limited medical services due to lack of infrastructure and registration status. Insufficient funding is a major constraint to Mtandi dispensary’s expansion.

Nevertheless, due to the good reputation the dispensary has in the community, it is has started to compete and survive among competitors who are better equipped, such as Dr. Mwambe Health Centre, Victoria Dispensary and the Mkuti Dispensary, due to its committed staff (Baraka Mlowola, who is a clinical officer), nurses and the Christ-like care patients receive.

A strategy has been developed for Mtandi dispensary to satisfy the local demand, and reach financial self-sufficiency in doing so, by the end of 2021.  It will do this by converting to a health centre and ensuring that it is providing services for which there is clear demand amongst the local community.

A strategy focuses on achieving the criteria of getting support of from the government.  These criteria include:

• delivering of vertical services (services that are free of charge, such as reproductive and child health services (RCH) and care and treatment clinic (CTC)

• employing enough qualified workers (such as doctors and [*}] with the required credentials and certificates from recognised institutions)

• having quality buildings for service delivery (what are these)

 The Diocese wants to take this opportunity by:

• recruiting seven qualified workers (5 qualified nurses, 1 pharmacist, 1 laboratory technician

• building a good laboratory with a number of diagnostic investigation (ultrasonography, blood picture machine, chemistry machine);

• improving service delivery, by having a minor theatre, an eye clinic and a dental clinic