• Governor said they will register the elderly so the county pays part of the money, beneficiaries pay the rest so they access health care easily.
Image: ALPHONCE GARI
Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung'aro has assured residents his administration will fix the ailing health sector to achieve universal health care.
Mung’aro said already plans are underway to buy CT Scan machines and ECG equipment, among other key facilities that are lacking in county hospitals.
Speaking in Malindi after touring the annual Ear Nose And Throat (ENT) Surgical camp organised by Caris Foundation that brought together 23 doctors from the USA and 25 Kenyan surgeons at Tawfiq Hospital in Malindi
On Thursday the Governor said he was determined to change the health sector by not only upgrading the hospitals but also by equipping them with new facilities.
“Shortly we will be launching CT Scans, we will be buying more surgical beds, ECG machines and other facilities,” he said.
The Governor said next month the county will officially launch Intensive Care Ambulance Services as the existing ambulances are not able to handle emergencies. He compared them to matatus.
He said the county was buying four ambulances with intensive care units and five surgical beds with anaesthesia machines.
Mung’aro advised residents of Kilifi to pay the National Hospital Insurance Fund as it is very helpful in accessing health care services.
“I have realised here that if you do four dialyses, two are paid by NHIF. That tells you if you did NHIF sensitisation on a public-private partnership, we could get more people registered,” he said.
Image: ALPHONCE GARI
He said they will announce a programme to register the elderly so that part of the money is paid by the county and the rest by the beneficiaries so they access health care easily.
“We should encourage people to pay NHIF — it's Sh500 per month. We will roll out a county campaign telling people to pay this much and the county pays the rest,” he said.
The Governor said they are working with partners to increase the medical camps and bring in more experts so residents can be treated at no cost.
Jim Repart from Caris Foundation said they started the programme when Mung'aro was MP for Malindi in 2008.
He said they finished the camp at Tawfiq Hospital with the surgeons from the US and performed 80 major surgeries.
Further, he said they also had an ENT clinic where they saw more than 170 patients.
“Over 300 people were served in this medical camp in the last two weeks, which was done with the Caris Foundation and Tawfiq Hospital in ongoing work in this county,” he said.
Ahmed Aboud thanked the Caris Foundation for sponsoring the medical camp and requested the doctors to come again in six months to recover the time lost to the Covid-19 pandemic.
So far he said they have returned many patients who have already been screened and were waiting to undergo the surgeries when the medical camp resumes.
(Edited by V. Graham)