After the successful launch of the Universal Health coverage pilot program “Afya Care” last week by His Exellency President Uhuru Kenyatta, the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Sicily Kariuki today toured Machakos County health facilities and assured the nation the program is on course.
The CS confirmed that the exercise was going on well in all the four counties especially in terms of medical supplies which had already been received in the various hospitals.
Accompanied by Machakos County Deputy Governor, Eng. Francis Maliti the CS visited Athi river health centre and Kathiani Level 4 hospital and affirmed that medical supplies for next three months have been delivered and all patients with the UHC card have started receiving treatment for free.
“I can confirm that all the plans that were put in place during the beginning of the programme are ongoing. The staff have been trained and the citizens are aware of the programme,” she noted.
She also pointed out that most of the patients that she visited in the wards had acknowledged that they have not been charged for services as well as medication.
She revealed that KEMSA has delivered medical commodities in all the facilities according to the projections of the counties and the only challenge was that some health centers have a small storage space because they used to keep minimal drugs.
“We have discussed with the County and I have instructed them to increase the storage space for medicines as the number of patients are likely to increase as well as the demand for medication.”
The CS noted that all medicines which have been supplied have a standard mark from KEMSA reading “not for sale” and urged the public to be vigilant.
“Am appealing that should you find any of these medication with a stamp of KEMSA report it to the chief so that the law can take its course,” she advised the public.
She added that although registration of the UHC cards started way before the pilot programme, there are some residents who missed out and so they have set up registration tables at the facilities for those who did not register to do so in order to access services.
She also clarified that community health volunteers have been trained and are engaged in the programme and the Ksh 2000 which they receive from the government is only a stipend for the two hours which they volunteer daily.
She advised that “The county governments who wish to engage them for more hours then the agreed, can do so on a prorata basis and can add them something more than the Ksh 2000 that the national government pays them.
The government launched Universal Health Coverage (UHC) programme in four counties of Machakos, Nyeri , Isiolo and Kisumu on 13th December 2018 at a cost of 3.1 billion shillings last week and the roll up of phase two is expected after six months of the pilot in the rest of the country.
Under the UHC programme , the Machakos county was identified because it is prone to road traffic accidents. At the start of program Machakos had registered 270,350 households against a targeted 316,000.
“We want to ensure that all our people can access health care without payment. Although we have a shortage of doctors, community health volunteers are helping in the villages and we are discussing with the CS on their payment,” the deputy governor said.
