KENYA – Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has introduced the national scale-up of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) with a call to citizens to register for the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
The advanced policy seeks to eradicate the ‘poverty of dignity’ and transition Kenya into an era where nobody is forced to choose between medical bills and other essential needs.
He welcomed the passing into law of the NHIF Amendment Act by parliament to facilitate the realization of the UHC goal.
The Act provides for NHIF to establish a centralized healthcare provider management system to ensure efficient management and payment of claims as well as data collection.
President Uhuru directed NHIF to ensure the system is set up and operational by the end of June this year.
He further pointed out that the biometric registration at NHIF should be inter-linked to the Huduma Number database.
UHC was started in Kenya in 2013 with the launch of the highly acclaimed free maternity programme dubbed “Linda Mama” which currently benefits over one million mothers annually.
The Kenyan administration developed the UHC Policy covering the period 2020 – 2030 to guide the acceleration of the progress in attaining Universal Health Coverage.
During the programme launch at Port Reitz Sub-County Hospital in Mombasa, President Uhuru said the Covid-19 pandemic had exposed the urgent need for the country to upscale implementation of the UHC.
“The state has put in place initiatives to ensure the successful implementation of UHC including investment in health infrastructure and development of a digital health platform to support effective monitoring of the health sector,” confirmed the Head of State.
The government has made investments in health infrastructure since 2013 leading to a 43% increase in public health facilities from a stock of 4,429 facilities in 2013 to 6,342 currently.
“In the same period, our ICU capacity has increased by an impressive 502 percent and our total hospital bed capacity has also increased significantly by 47 percent,” affirmed President Kenyatta.
The Government has also fully funded the upgrading hospitals across 47 counties as national referral hospitals with specialized state-of-the-art medical equipment.
Additionally, it has developed Kenya Essential Medicines List, Essential Medicals Supplies List and Kenya Medical Laboratory List to enhance availability of essential medical supplies as well as guide health facilities on investment of commodities.
President Kenyatta said the country has increased the total number of health workers in the public and private sector by 41 percent over the past ten years to address human resource shortage.
He further stated that 15,234 healthcare workers were recruited under the UHC programme and COVID-19 management.
“Community health coverage has also increased from 10 percent in 2013 to the current 91 percent which reflects enhanced capacity of the community health workforce to cater for the 8,663 Community Health Units across the country,” he observed.
The President also established the Kenya National Public Health Institute to lead the coordination of public health functions across all sectors and promote evidence-based decision-making on health matters.
Meanwhile, Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), Amnesty International Kenya together with other stakeholders in the healthcare sector have validated ‘The People’s Health Manifesto’.
The manifesto will prioritize the right to health and affordable, accessible, available and quality healthcare for all Kenyans,
They further urged the government to deregister any institution denying emergency treatment and diagnostics to patients.
Liked this article? Sign up to receive our regular email newsletters, focused on Africa and World’s healthcare industry, directly into your inbox. SUBSCRIBE HERE
