Ministry lays out Sh90 billion plan to improve health services

The Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation will spend over Sh90 billion in this financial year to improve services in health centres across the country.

In the funds under the Health Sector Services Funds (HSSF) kitty, 653 health centres and District Health Management teams (DTMT) will each receive Sh138 million to improve the delivery of essential health services for Kenyans especially the poor.

According to Dr Shahnaz Shariff, the director of public health, the kitty will need more donor support in order to achieve its mission of scaling up delivery of health services across the country’s facilities.

He was speaking at Githunguri health centre yesterday where he announced the 4th quarter disbursement of Sh106 million and Sh32 million to 653 health centres and 265 DTMTs respectively.

Funds channelled through the HSSF funds, are mainly used for maintenance of equipment, rehabilitation of infrastructure, purchasing drugs and other non-pharmaceuticals.

The Kenyan health sector has been on the spotlight following reports on inequalities in accessing healthcare even as stakeholders in the sector are locked up in meetings to come up with creative health reforms.

While general mortality rates have been on the decrease since 2003, severe inequalities in wealth status that are portrayed in access to services, unreliable drug supplies and shortage of staffs in the medical line has remained a challenge whose load has often been borne by the poor.

Kenya is the regional leader in out of pocket expenditures for health. Less that 10 per cent of the total population is covered under various insurance schemes that are largely not medical insurance.

Since the establishment of the Health Sector Services Fund that was aimed at ensuring government resources trickle down to lower level health facilities, health experts welcomed the initiative but have always viewed the lack of well established channels of handling the funds as having delayed achievement of the goals for which HSSF was set out to accomplish.

For example, while all facilities have the money channelled through their respective bank accounts, failure to have proper accounting systems has delayed the withdrawal and utilisation of such funds.

The danger of such situtions has been evident in poor management of health funds, which according to Dr Shariff has led to big portion of the funds not to reach lower facilities.

As a result, many Kenyans, almost half of those living below the poverty line are unable to access quality healthcare despite its provision as a basic human right in the constitution.