The healthcare sector received a major boost after more than 15,000 students graduated from the Kenya Medical Training Institute.
This is the first time in the institution’s 95-year-old history, that such a large number of graduates were conferred with various certificates, diplomas and higher diplomas.
Of the 15,915 graduates, 692 were awarded higher diplomas, 8,235 diplomas and 6,988 certificates.
Health CS Susan Wafula who is also an alumnus of KMTC urged the graduates to practice the health professional’s mantra of putting the interests of the patients first.
“Health workforce as we know is a key health system building block without which we cannot achieve universal health coverage. A well-performing health workforce is one that is responsive, fair and efficient to achieve the best health outcomes,” she said.
The CS underscored the government’s commitment to realising the constitutional right to health for all citizens.
She acknowledged the need to enhance the country’s health provider to patient ratios in line with the global standards.
This, she said, will require the country to align training to meet the growing demand for patient-centred care, community-based health services, and personalised long-term care.
“Demand for the global health workforce is expected to grow substantially. As a country, we need to align future production of health care workers to the population health needs,” Wafula said.
According to the KMTC board chairman Zachary Muburi, the institution receives more than 30,000 applications annually.
However, they are only able to absorb about two-thirds of the applicants in the existing 72 campuses spread across 44 of the 47 counties.
Kenya faces an acute shortage of nurses with just 60,000 serving a population of more than 50 million Kenyans.
This makes it difficult for Kenya to achieve sustainable healthcare and ensure healthy lives for all.
The world has an estimated 28 million nurses, who make up about 60 per cent of the global health sector professionals.
Even though nursing is the largest occupational group in the healthcare industry, the World Health Organization estimates that there is a global shortage of six million nursing professionals and the number is likely to rise to nine million by 2030.
