Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) Population Health, in collaboration with Dumisha Afya, has donated a mobile X-ray truck to Busia County with a view to improving healthcare coverage.
Speaking during the handover of the truck at Busia County Referral Hospital on Monday, the organisation’s representative, Salome Sijenyi, expressed their commitment to advancing universal health coverage across the country.
“Access to diagnosis is one of our top priorities,” she said, expressing confidence that the truck will move across Busia County and enable people from far-flung areas to access X-ray services.
Sijenyi urged Busia County leadership to assign a radiologist, as the organisation provides a driver for mobility.
‘We do not want to own it as AMPATH, but we are doing this to strengthen the health system in this county,” she said, adding that there will be a mentorship programme across all the seven Sub-Counties where the truck will move.
Busia Deputy Governor Arthur Odera said that the truck will help in delivering services in remote areas and health centres that ordinarily do not have the capacity and resources to position the X-ray machine.
‘With this truck, we will be able to achieve a level of efficiency in delivering services, and as a county, we are also forced to think about how best to deliver services without over-reliance on brick and motor everywhere,’ he said.
Odera said that the Department of Health will define the various areas of need and come up with a schedule of movement for the truck.
Busia Chief Officer for Health, Susan Outa, said that she will make sure the truck is mobile at all times and will be maintained throughout so that patients can get the services.
Outa added that the truck will have a designated radiologist and radiographer present at all times and a driver who has been deployed by the AMPATH.
“We will have a team working on this truck deployed on a yearly basis and ensuring that there is a mentorship programme in every health facility that does not have X-ray services,’ she said.
By Victoria Magar
