Prime Minister Mwigulu Nchemba has ordered local government authorities to set aside funds for ambulance fuel, warning health workers against demanding contributions from patients requiring emergency referrals.
The directive seeks to address delays in emergency healthcare services, particularly cases in which patients are asked to pay for fuel before ambulances can transport them to referral hospitals.
Dr Mwigulu issued the order on Monday, November 9, 2026, while addressing residents of Iselamagazi in Solwa Constituency, Shinyanga District, during his working visit to Shinyanga Region.
“Do not collect contributions for ambulance fuel. An ambulance should transport a patient and rush them to hospital. An ambulance is not a commuter bus, and nurses are not conductors collecting fuel contributions,” he said.
He directed the Shinyanga Regional Medical Officer to ensure all ambulances have adequate fuel and are ready to respond to emergencies, insisting that councils must make specific budgetary allocations for the service.
“If you did not include it in the budget and are now preparing one, I want all ambulances to be on standby. A patient whose life needs to be saved must not be asked to pay for fuel,” he said.
The Prime Minister urged residents who had been asked to contribute towards ambulance fuel to report the officials responsible, warning that public servants who deliberately delay essential services should face dismissal rather than being transferred to other workplaces.
He also raised concerns over delays in maternity services, saying women arriving at health facilities in labour should receive immediate attention instead of being held up while being asked to provide items such as buckets and basins.
“Let us not turn bad practices into rules,” he said.
In a separate directive, Dr Mwigulu called on security and law enforcement agencies to investigate the management of public funds allocated for medicines, from procurement and distribution to their availability at health facilities.
He questioned why patients continued to be directed to private pharmacies to purchase medicines despite reports showing that some public health facilities had medicine availability rates exceeding 97 per cent.
“How much money has been released? How much medicine has been purchased? Where has it been distributed, and how are citizens accessing it?” he asked.
He directed that medicine procurement should be based on the actual needs of individual communities and the diseases prevalent in their respective areas.
The investigation is expected to establish whether public resources allocated for medicines are translating into reliable supplies and improved access to treatment.
On agriculture, Dr Mwigulu announced that the Government would allow multiple buyers to participate in cotton purchasing from the next marketing season, ending the arrangement under which a single buyer operates in a particular area.
He said opening up the market would promote competition among buyers, potentially improve farm-gate prices and give farmers better returns from their produce.
The announcement follows complaints raised by cotton farmers during his recent visit to Simiyu Region. He said he had subsequently directed the Minister for Agriculture to consult stakeholders in the cotton industry.
The proposed chang