The Directorate of Surgery is one among eight Directorates of Muhimbili National Hospital. This Directorate is entrusted with the responsibility to attend all surgical patients in the Hospital. The Directorate also takes care of patients both inpatients (admitted) and outpatients. The Directorate is composed of six surgical departments namely Surgery, Otorhinolaryngology (ENT), Anaesthesia, Ophthalmology, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Dental Departments. Each Department is formed by Super specialist Units which are responsible to deliver a specific Super specialist surgical service in the respective department. The Directorate of surgery has a bed capacity of 788 beds. There are 69 specialists and 56 Registrars in this Directorate. .

The Department of Surgery is one among the six departments of the Directorate of Surgical Services comprises of five units. These units are divided according to their areas of specialization which are; Gastroenterology and General Surgery, Thoracic and General Surgery, Urology, Paediatric Surgery and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Unit. The overall responsibility of the department is to provide effective, efficiency and high quality tertiary specialist surgical services to patients.