• CS says review of UHC in Machakos, Kisumu, Nyeri and Isiolo shows commodities available but some counties need more workers
• To cooperate in five areas
Image: GEORGE OWITI
Thailand will help Kenya roll out its universal healthcare coverage and will cooperate in five key areas.
Thailand's Public Health Minister Prof Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn, who visited Nairobi and Machakos on Friday, said Kenya’s ambitious plan is on the right track.
Piyasakol and Health CS Sicily Kariuki on Friday signed an action plan, which includes study visits between the two countries and peer review.
Thailand is about the same land mass and population as Kenya and has achieved the milestone, despite having a low gross national income per capita.
“For Kenya, failure is not in question. We can mobilise social, intellectual capital and other countries will learn from Kenya,” Piyasakol said.
Thailand’s hugely successful UHC was launched in 2001 and by 2011 provided 98 per cent of the population with heavily subsidised healthcare.
Kariuki said the latest review of UHC pilot in Machakos, Kisumu, Nyeri and Isiolo, shows there is continuous availability of medical commodities but commodity but some countries need more workers.
“If we can learn what happened in Thailand, we can close the gaps quickly because we have a mentor. For instance, we want to know how they were able to close the gaps in the low number of workers in facilities,” she said.
The two countries will cooperate in:
•Insurance financing. The team reforming the National Hospital Insurance Fund will visit Thailand to benchmark on the National Health Security Office (NHSO), which manages the country’s $2.2 billion universal coverage scheme.
“On financing, we are learning we can pick what fits in the Kenyan context,” Kariuki said.
The NHSO’s executive board consists of representatives of patients and civil society, government agencies, hospital operators and professional doctors.
• Health technology assessment.
• Human resources. ensuring adequate staff.
• Drugs pricing. Kenya will study Thailand's model drugs price-setting mechanism.
“Forty per cent of the cost of healthcare is medicine, so we should have essential drugs within the correct pricing. Now Kemsa does not have a reference price listing," Kariuki said.
•Incentiving medics to work in rural areas.
Piyasakol said Thailand’s programme gives incentives for medics to work in rural areas. He said a doctor in Thailand earns an average of $800 (Sh80,000) salary a month but those working in remote areas can earn as much as Sh250,000 a month.
From medical school, doctors are bonded to work in the public sector for three years.
He said Thailand is successful because there is a strong political commitment to make UHC succeed.