ST ANNE’S HOSPITAL
St Anne’s Hospital is based in Liuli, a settlement on the shore of Lake Malawi in Tanzania’s Mbinga District and the Ruvuma Diocese of the Anglican Church of Tanzania (ACT). The hospital receives patients living along the Lake Malawi shore, including some from Mozambique. USPG has supported St Anne’s for many decades with funds going towards the hospital’s running costs.
The history of St Anne’s Hospital dates back to the arrival of the first Anglican missionaries to what was then Nyasaland in1902. Archdeacon William Persarval Johnson came across through Lake Nyasa from Malawi to Liuli to set up a mission on behalf of the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa (UMCA). His aims were to spread the Gospel, build churches and establish Christian medical services for people who lived in poverty along the Lake Nyasa and its borders.
The hospital was founded in 1902, but its first permanent building went up in 1906, built of reeds on the shores of Lake Nyasa. In 1922 it moved to its current site and the main hospital building’s foundation stone was laid. By this time, it had a total capacity of 20 beds. The hospital underwent a major renovation and extension in the 1970s, with new facilities opened in 1978. Today St Anne’s Hospital has a total capacity of 100 beds and serves 146,160 people (according to Tanzania’s 2012 census) around Nyasa District.
Seven dispensaries (Ng’ombo, Chinula, Chiulu, Mbaha, Lindamatengo, Tumbi and Mkali) were set up alongside the main hospital, serving communities in remote areas. However, by 1999 due six of them were handed over to the Tanzanian government’s Ministry of Health, due to the high financial costs involved in running health facilities. The Diocese of Ruvuma still runs the Ng’ombo dispensary today.
St Anne’s Hospital is a non-profit making voluntary agency hospital and a faith-based organisation. It is managed by the ACT Diocese of Ruvuma.
