Anita Sain is originally from India who came with parents when she was just a child. She and her team of 10 staff handle the whole laboratory, this is including 4 radiologist who work 24 hours on a rotation of 3 shifts for lab and 2 shifts for radiology.

Anita has over 12+ years’ experience since graduating from IMTU in 2009. She has worked in the renowned hospitals in Dar-es-salaam like  TMJ Hospital, Muhimbili Hospital and Tiba Health Care in Upanga. She has been working with Tasakhtaa for over 2 years now and is responsible for not just managing the laboratory but also coordinating the lab test plus radiology test results. 

They perform a total of 500 tests performed daily and all their machines are calibrated weekly. Some equipment has a limit (for auto calibration) these provide both digital and hard copy results and these records are maintained. 

Most common tests are urine test, blood test, malaria, renal function test. Some test like Microbiology and biopsy culture and sensitive tests are not so common. 

In her words; she says: “In the Biochemistry Department – I have learnt from all my experience that with the knowledge of every machine, I can even fix the equipment myself because I don’t like to see the patients waiting”

There are times when we get unpredictable tests which have critical results that we cannot release without a medical doctor and it leaves us  to talk carefully with the patients in terms of counselling, which is a skill I have had to pick up over the years.