- Nairobi has a total of 803 health facilities, out of which 119 are government, 559 –private and NGO –owned -145 .
- Government owned Level Two facilities are 58, level three-45, level four -13 and Level five are 3 hospitals.
Image: WILFRED NYANGARESI
City Hall has been recommended to fully equip all the public health facilities in Nairobi to accelerate access to quality healthcare services.
This is according to the recommendation by the Nairobi City County Health Reforms Taskforce report, January 2023.
On Thursday, the taskforce chairperson Githinji Gitahi said that Nairobi has Level Two and Three hospitals which were weak and ill-equipped.
“There is limited access to quality healthcare services, especially for the vulnerable, indigent and special populations and in the informal settlements,” he said.
This has resulted in the unnecessary bypass of the primary health facilities to secondary and tertiary facilities.
Nairobi has a total of 803 health facilities, out of which 119 are government, 559(private) and 145(NGO –owned).
Government-owned Level Two facilities are 58, Level 3(45), Level 4(13) and Level 5(3).
A Level 2 health facility is referred to as a dispensary and is run by clinical officers offering outpatient, VCT, Tuberculosis, Laboratory Antenatal and postnatal services, curative treatment and issuance of referral letters to other facilities.
Level Three facilities are referred to as health centres and are run by at least one doctor, clinical officers and nurses and have 16- 25 In Patient Bed Capacity
Level 3 facility is a health centre and is run by at least one doctor, clinical officer and nurses.
Level 4 are county hospitals that offer holistic services and are run by a director who is a medic and at best a doctor by profession
Level 5 is the county referral hospitals formerly the provincial hospitals. They are run by Chief Executive Officers.
The taskforce also recommended the operationalisation and upgraded 11 facilities from Level 3.
To also improve health services, Sakaja was recommended to ensure all the health facilities transformed into 24/7 facilities and are fully operational.
Last year, retired President Uhuru Kenyatta directed that all the then-commissioned Nairobi Metropolitan Services hospitals offer 24-hour services.
This was to ensure residents access health services whenever they need them and to decongest Kenyatta National Hospital and Mama Lucy Hospital.
However, the lack of medicines and security were among the reasons why the directive never took place.
City Hall has also been advised to scale up access to integrated quality community health services as well as implement the Community Health Services Act 2019.
“The taskforce urged the governor to employ 80 Community Health Assistants (CHAs) to bridge the existing gap in the establishment,” Gitahi said.
Nairobi has 7,320 health community workers who have been linked to 99 city health centres.
Each health worker is in charge of 100 households within the county.
In the last financial year 2021-22, Nairobi allocated Sh308 million towards rolling out of the stipend and National Health Insurance Fund cover for health volunteers.
As part of the allocation, Sh100 million was used for the initial payment of the community health volunteers.
This saw the monthly stipend for the community health volunteers increase from the current Sh1,300 to Sh3,000.
The taskforce was formed by Governor Sakaja in September 2022, after an impromptu visit to Mama Lucy Hospital.
CEO of Kenya Healthcare Federation Githinji Gitahi leads the taskforce of eight to review the sector and propose reforms.
Other members were Kenyatta University Hospital chairperson Olive Mugenda, Anastasia Nyalita, Dorcas Kemunto, Mercy Mwangangi, William Charles Fryda, Karei Mwenda and county secretary Jairus Musumba.
The team was expected to engage residents, health staff and other stakeholders.
It also reviewed citizens' access to quality health services, assess the status of all public health facilities and the status of health information management and propose interventions to forge a comprehensive system.
Also in their in-tray was a review of supply chain management of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical products, current human resource capacity, assessment of the gaps and proposing efficient health financing
The team was expected to submit its report to City Hall together with its recommendations.
In response, Governor Sakaja said that his administration would see to it that the taskforce recommendations are implemented.