By Clifford Akumu
The Kenya Head of Public Service, Felix Koskei, has sent a stern warning to corrupt healthcare professionals even as he reiterated the government’s commitment to address the challenges in the sector.
“Let us stop corruption in the healthcare sector. Let us not be selling drugs or even discriminating against clients seeking services in the healthcare facilities,” Koskei said at the ongoing Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Conference in Kericho County.
He noted that the government is fully aware of the multifaceted challenges faced by healthcare workers at both the national and county levels. Koskei implored the need for collaboration between the two levels of government to boost high-quality healthcare services across the country.
These challenges include training and development, staff welfare and career advancement, performance management and motivation, healthcare worker safety and well-being, staff mobility , as well as inter-county inter-governmental transfers.
“We call upon the two tiers of government to formulate strategies that guarantee the provision of secure, effective, and high-quality healthcare services. We must seize the moment,” said Koskei.
“Our gratitude must be manifested in us building a robust healthcare system that is characterized by a well-trained and well-motivated human resource,well-equipped facilities,well-stocked pharmacies, and well-thought-out policies and strategies fit for the challenges of 21st-century healthcare.”
The Health Cabinet Secretary (CS), Susan Nakhumicha on her part stressed the need for accountability from healthcare professionals noting that it will no longer be business as usual for such elements in the sector.
“You cannot be a doctor who comes and hangs the dust coat, and when patients are coming to cue you are nowhere to be seen. And at the end of the day, you expect a reward. It doesn’t happen and it will no longer happen in our healthcare sector as we move forward,” said Nakhumicha.
The healthcare sector players converging for the third day in Kericho County used the occasion to diagnose what is ailing the human resource for health.
Although the counties had employed 56,000 healthcare workers by 2022, but the country still suffers from a chronic shortage of health workers. As of 2020, Kenya had a total of 189,932 health workers with 66 percent being in the public sector and 58 percent,13 percent, and seven percent being nurses, clinical officers, and doctors respectively.
In early January this year, the Health CS had mooted plans by the government to hire 20,000 healthcare workers to bridge the doctor, nurse, and midwife ratios as prescribed by the World Health Organisation.
Cabinet Secretary for Public Service Performance and Delivery Management, Moses Kuria, rooted for the harmonization of healthcare workers’ remuneration.
“In the next two weeks I really want to engage the governors and the health ministry to look at the issues of harmonization of salaries among healthcare workers,” said CS Kuria.
“Before you hire other people, can you ensure that these people whom the country invested in(those trained in Universal Health Coverage) are able to be deployed to various stations, work with them, and then create space for us to be able to train other people?”
Kuria further explained that though the government is focused on performance and delivery trajectory, there were still healthcare professionals who had not yet been on-boarded.
“Some of the healthcare workers in county governments are outside that performance contracting regime. For example, we have highly qualified doctors, and physicians in a county hospital who are not on performance contracts. Kenyans should now demand that all national or county workers must sign the performance contract,” said Kuria.
Jackson Mandago, chair of the Senate Health Committee, vouched for a legal framework that will enable the national and county government units to on-board healthcare workers to power UHC.
Mandago noted that “Money meant for health functions in the levels of governments should be ring-fenced and not lumped in other county functions. We also need to increase the funds allocated to the health facilities.”
Health stakeholders also use the occasion to sign The Kericho Declaration on Human Resources for Health in Kenya, a 17-point commitment to support adequate and equitable distribution of a productive health workforce.
Currently, there are four pivotal draft bills, meticulously tailored to expedite the achievement of Universal Health Coverage. These include the Social Health Insurance Bill(2023), the Primary Healthcare Bill(2023), the Facility Improvement Financing Bill(2023), and the Digital Health Bill(2023).
