As you read this article, you may have been added to a WhatsApp group whose administrator wants you to help a family pay a medical bill.
If not, you must have come across a poster on social media on the same.
One such family is that of West FM
journalist Dennis Omondi who was diagnosed with acute leukaemia in January this year.
to undergo treatment that includes a bone marrow transplant at Apollo Hospital in Ahmedabad. Well-wishers helped him raise at least Sh4 million but he has to wait a little longer for the transplant as his relatives are not matches.
This is the story of many critically ill Kenyans who either can't access proper treatment or pay for direct and indirect costs should they find it.
In addition, many move from one hospital to another or to facilities in places as far as India.
Stories like Omondi's illustrate the desperate need for a proper healthcare plan for Kenyans,
so the promises of President Uhuru Kenyatta's universal health coverage agenda (UHC) have been received with open arms.
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A doctor stands next to a theratron equinox machine at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, February 7, 2018. / EZEKIEL AMINGÁ
NOBLE CAUSE, MAJOR BOTTLENECKS
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), UHC is aimed at ensuring everybody gets medicare without suffering financial hardships - healthcare and financial protection.
Ouma Oluga, the Secretary-General of the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU), says the plan is a "very good thing" for Kenyans.
"We commend the President on this bold move but we also need to ensure all systems in the health sector are fully functional before it is rolled out."
Oluga's sentiments were echoed by Edna Talaam, the Chief Executive Officer of the
Nursing Council of Kenya.
“We fully support the move. This means more people will have access to healthcare, especially in public health facilities. It will also see more Kenyans stop digging deeper into their pockets to access the same services in private hospitals."
The government is currently working on pilots for the programme, a process which has presented major challenges that must be addressed for the plan to be effected.
Oluga noted that hospitals must be fully equipped and more professionals hired. This is not the case and is one of the reasons why Kenya has signed a healthcare agreement with Cuba.
The Cuban
specialists will arrive on May 28 and proceed to the counties, with each county getting at least two.
They will work hand-in-hand with their Kenyan counterparts to roll out a range of medical services that are expected to radically change how a large number of life-threatening diseases are managed.
Oluga wants at least 2,000 Kenyans hired before foreigners get slots.
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Besides human resources, another main barrier to Kenya's health plan is financing.
The WHO places the country at position 140 out of 190 in its ranking of the world's health systems, based on components such as human resources, essential medical products and technologies and, ultimately, service delivery.
All of these components have to do with money.
The President has been meeting officials to discuss the progress of the grand healthcare plan.
At the eighth roundtable of government leaders and the Kenya Private Sector Alliance last week, six bottlenecks were discussed - the high cost of providing care, limitation of funding, inadequate infrastructure and insecurity, inadequate medical personnel, low collaboration between public and private service providers and lack of an effective regulatory framework for the industry.
On financing, proposed actions by the government include more private sector investments to raise the targeted $2 billion, reversing VAT on medical equipment, pushing for the consumption of locally produced medicine and supporting county medical plans to reach 13 million Kenyans.
Other proposed solutions are enhancing training to close the gap of 3,000 medics, working with the private sector to implement the e-health strategy and fast-tracking the NHIF Bill and Health Laws Amendments Bill (2018).
The roundtable also discussed the other three pillars of the Big Four Action Plan, which are affordable housing, manufacturing and food security.
The following is the full report from the discussions:
STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
Despite these challenges, stakeholders in the health sector
are optimistic that the plan will become a reality because of the support from partners.
During World Health Day celebrations on April 7, Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki said the project will be piloted in Isiolo, Kisumu, Nyeri and Machakos counties.
“The sample size in the rest of the counties will be 10,000 households. We must create evidence by working in small cohorts before rolling it out across the country to a larger population," Kariuki said.
She noted that the country’s plan will mirror that of Thailand, which has created a UHC learning programme supported by the Japanese government.
The Asian country's success is supported by the extensive geographical coverage of a functioning primary health care system, which was the result of three decades of investments by successive governments in infrastructure and the health workforce.
WHO country director Ruddi Eggers said the organisation will give Kenya the backing needed to make UHC a reality.
“This is the only way to go. Citizens should be able to enjoy basic human rights - healthcare is one of them."
When WHO director General Tedros Adhamon visited Kenya for the first time in January, he said they were willing to bring in doctors from other countries to help the country come up with its own model.
"You all know how passionate I am about UHC. I want to see what the Kenyan government is doing to ensure it is achieved." Adhamon said.
He also challenged countries to roll out UHC to reduce the impoverishment associated with payment for health services.
Jane Ajele, Turkana County's Executive for Health and Sanitation, at Lodwar Refferal Hospital, February 13, 2018. /HESBOUN ETYANG
For the UHC plan to be successful, the WHO has identified six key components of a well-functioning health system.
These are leadership and governance, health financing, human resources for health, health information systems, essential medical products and technologies, and service delivery.
Adhamon said:
"All these components must perform optimally for the realisation of universal healthcare."
Uhuru
has also launched a Sh4 billion scheme for close to three million high school students who will sign up for the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).
The Education ministry has directed school heads to identify health facilities that will serve the students in the second term. The goal is to keep more learners in school, reduce the costs parents incur and generally improve student's welfare.