Dodoma — THE government said it will soon launch the national digital health systems centre which will be responsible for synchronising digital health systems for more efficiency in service deliveries.

The envisaged centre is set for launching next month as the government assured of security, information and data protection by observing patients' privacy.

Health Ministry's Senior ICT Officer, Walter Ndesanjo revealed this over the weekend during a roundtable discussion on the Digital Health Information for achieving Universal Health Coverage in the country.

The meeting was organised by UNITE's Digital Health Policy Desk in partnership with OMUKA Hub.

He said the digital health system has made health service delivery fast and effective as well as cost effective.

Mr Ndesanjo cited one of the huge benefits as getting away with paper work in dispensing services.

He said the national digital health systems centre will be responsible for developing local systems, maintenance, governance and sustainability as the government wants to shy away from foreign system.

He said after management and synchronisation, currently only 30 digital systems have remained from 128 systems which existed before.

The ministry has introduced the digital health transformation course in health training colleges curricula to equip the students with skills so that when they graduate they can apply the skills to improve health service delivery in all facilities.

On her part, OMUKA Hub Founder, Ms Neema Lugangira (Special Seats-CCM), underscored the need for the digital health systems synchronisation to attain the needed transformation.

"All digital health systems in the country must be linked to national hospitals so that a patient is not forced to go for numerous diagnoses that have already been done by another facility," she said.

Ms Jesca Msambatavangu (Iringa-CCM) argued that centralising digital health systems will improve services and give room for the government to keep a close eye on dispensation of services, drugs and get early alert on outbreaks.

UNITE's ambition is to influence and promote global health policies to strengthen the health system, human rights and equitable access to health and global health architecture and security.

It is a network of 300 members of parliament from multinational, national, state and regional parliaments from more than 90 countries.