Benjamin Mkapa Hospital in Dodoma, Tanzania’s capital, has set up a diabetic foot clinic through a partnership with Dutch specialists. The clinic was running within six months and sees about 20 patients a day, according to an account published by Focus voor Afrika, an initiative of the Dutch foundation Stichting ZGT-Overzee.
How the Dodoma clinic was built
The Dutch team included vascular surgeon Sjef van Baal, wound nurse and physician assistant Arne Wessels, diabetes podiatrist Tim van Dun, Professor of Vascular Surgery Hence Verhagen of Erasmus MC, and trauma surgeon Mark van Baal of UMC Utrecht. They worked with Prof Abbas, an endocrinologist from Dar es Salaam.
The partnership began with about six months of online education for Tanzanian doctors, specialists and nurses. Planned next steps include a weekly multidisciplinary meeting, a national diabetic foot symposium in Dodoma, and a few weeks of training in the Netherlands for a nurse and an endocrinologist from the hospital.
A different clinical picture
When the team examined 80 patients with diabetes, they found little peripheral arterial disease. By contrast, in Western populations, vascular disease is involved in more than half of diabetic foot wounds. Cost is a major barrier: Focus voor Afrika reports that around 75% of Tanzania’s population has no health insurance.
The account was first published in April 2026 and last updated in October. It is a programme report rather than a peer-reviewed study, and the finding on vascular disease comes from a small group of patients.
IMEA POD Perspective
Dodoma shows that a working diabetic foot clinic does not have to start with expensive equipment. It starts with trained people, a shared protocol and a team that meets regularly, and much of that training can be delivered online. The observation that peripheral arterial disease was uncommon in this group deserves follow-up. If it holds in larger samples, it suggests that in parts of East Africa neuropathy, poor footwear, trauma and late presentation drive most ulcers. That would make offloading, footwear provision, wound care and early infection control, the core skills of podiatry, more important than revascularisation. Tanzania, like most of sub-Saharan Africa, has very few podiatrists, so the presence of a diabetes podiatrist on the Dutch team is significant. Partnerships like this one should aim to leave local podiatric skills behind, not just surgical ones. With three in four people uninsured, sustainability will depend on government support for low-cost offloading and footwear. Twinning programmes elsewhere in the region should publish their outcomes so the model can be tested and repeated. Africa and MENA foot teams can compare notes at D-Foot’s Healthy Steps sessions on 15 November.
Sources and further reading
- Focus voor Afrika: Building better care for the diabetic foot together in Tanzania
- IMEA POD: D-Foot’s Healthy Steps Day brings MENA and Africa foot teams online on 15 November
- IMEA POD: Gauteng podiatry expansion aims to curb diabetic amputations