Continuity of essential health services amidst COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania: a pre and post implementation support assessment

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has potentially caused disruptions in provision of routine, regular essential health services in different ways; through overwhelming the health system in responding to COVID-19; some of the intervention used to slow transmission of COVID-19 may inhibit access to essential services; and through supplies of medicine being interrupted.. In Tanzania, unlike many other countries, which did not follow strict lockdown measures, disruption of access to and utilization of EHS due to anxiety and fear of contact with the infection while seeking medical care was observed. Method This was a cross-section study conducted in October 2022 to evaluate trends of utilizing essential health services before and after implantation of continued essential services (CES) project among 297 Amref supported facilities from Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. It involved the use of secondary data from the district health information system 2 (DHIS2), and extracted variable included; facility type and name, number of individuals using the antenatal, post-natal, immunization and delivery services. Through using STATA version 14, the data was cleaned, and quarterly and yearly average number of clients using either of the services was computed for the period between 2019 and 2021. Findings were presented in form of graphs, and comparison were made for the period before and after the implementation of the project. Results It was found that all key indicators that were assessed were maintained following the implementation of the project interventions that aimed at maintaining EHS during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion The study found that project interventions have remained relevant to the needs of communities as demonstrated by the maintenance of the essential MNCH services, as seen in a number of the key EHS indicators which were tracked. This calls for joint efforts between the government and partners on resource mobilization for scale-up so that the EHS is maintained and the country is prepared for these pandemics.