• Kiambu is the 10th county to sign the Universal Health Coverage.
• Nyoro said neighbours would complement their strategy if they followed suit.
Kiambu Deputy Governor James Nyoro on Wednesday urged neighbouring counties to sign a UHC agreement with the national government so they can complement each other in ensuring adequate health services.
Kiambu is the 10th county to sign the Universal Health Coverage. Nyoro said neighbours would complement their strategy if they followed suit, hence improving lower-level facilities and reducing patient influx in referral hospitals.
“We are hoping that neighbouring counties like Nairobi, Muranga and Nyandarua and others are going to sign the UHC so that we can have a unified way of tackling some of these health problems because these problems do not know boundaries,” Nyoro said.
He spoke in at the county headquarters in Kiambu town. Nyoro has been acting as governor since Governor Ferdinand Waititu was charged with corruption and barred from accessing his office. He said that the UHC will tackle issues of primary health coverage and community health volunteers without being limited to boundaries.
“Health is one of the most expensive dockets. Therefore, upscaling of the UHC to the rest of the country is a welcome move,” Nyoro said.
The county seeks to improve its health infrastructure and provide adequate medicines. Many patients from neighbouring counties such as Nairobi have been flocking to its facilities, straining their personnel and causing shortages of drugs.
“We are in the process of restructuring our health service delivery. We've looked into it and we now know and have diagnosed the problem. We have started some changes by making sure our health facilities have adequate medicines where the UHC will help us put medicine in our Level 2 and 3 hospitals so we reduce the influx of patients,” Nyoro said.
The Health Department plans to build a Kiambu county health medical store to avoid queuing at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority's offices (Kemsa).
"We would want to be given our own medicines to store so we can be distributing them to our hospitals,” the deputy county chief said.
Nyoro warned against theft of medicines, saying culprits will be fired and prosecuted.
The national government will this financial year invest Sh41.9 billion in key strategic areas informed by lessons learnt from the pilot programmes in Nyeri, Kisumu, Isiolo and Machakos, and existing health system gaps in human resource, commodities, primary healthcare, community health and other services to supplement county investments.
Outgoing Health CS Sicily Kariuki signed the Intergovernmental Participation Agreement (IPA) with Elgeyo Marakwet, Narok, Kajiado and Kiambu governors last week.