County government employees have rejected a move to introduce a third party to manage the Sh4.2 billion medical scheme for civil servants.
Through the Kenya County Government Workers Union secretary general Roba Duba, the employees said they will not allow any attempts to bring in an agent to run the multi-billion National Hospital Insurance Fund.
Duba said that the move could lead to poor service delivery.
“It's regrettable that another agent is being introduced even before the court concludes the suspicious case of Web Tribe Company which was appointed by NHIF to manage the same fund,” he said.
The secretary general stressed that the union will guard the fund to ensure that the over 130,000 civil servants and their beneficiaries have access to quality medical services.
“I want to call upon the Health CS to stand firm and not allow the proposal to have NHIF relinquish its key roles in the scheme as proposed by the technical committee set up by the Ministry of Public Service,” he said.
The principal administrative secretary in the ministry of Public Service Mary Kimonye has forwarded recommendations for adoption by the NHIF.
In the proposals, NHIF is expected to contract only networked public healthcare facilities to provide both outpatient services at both the county and national level.
Speaking in Kisumu over the weekend, Roba said that as a person sitting on the board of NHIF, he will speak to the chairman to advise the Health CS accordingly on the matter.
This issue to introduce a private administrator to manage the fund was brought about after complaints from workers of poor service delivery from the national insurer.
(Edited by O. Owino)
