The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) leadership has welcomed the scale-up efforts on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) to all 47 counties and confirmed its organisational readiness to support the rollout of affordable healthcare.
Following the success of the UHC pilot project in 2018, President Uhuru Kenyatta, on Monday, launched the national UHC Scale-Up, an essential delivery under the Government’s Big Four priority agenda.
While welcoming the scale-up, KEMSA Chairperson Mary Mwadime confirmed that the national pharmaceuticals supply Authority had actively participated in the UHC Pilot project and is now ready to facilitate the scale-up to all 47 counties.
Under President Uhuru Kenyatta’s visionary leadership to facilitate access to quality healthcare services to all citizens, KEMSA, among other players in the health sector, she assured, are working in concert to improve health outcomes.
Within the national UHC Scale-up commitments, the Government has committed to ensuring 100 per cent access to essential medicines for all Kenyans visiting public health centres in which in the last financial year and towards the achievement of UHC, KEMSA procured Health Products and Technologies (HPTs) worth Sh. 35.84 billion, with about 11,500 health facilities managing to draw down 97 per cent of these commodities.
The Authority, Ms Mwadime said, has put in place strategic measures to significantly contribute to the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as a strategic delivery partner.
“At the UHC pilot stage, we learnt some invaluable lessons that we will apply to facilitate the provision of equitable, affordable and quality health services. KEMSA is a crucial pillar on this journey, and we celebrate the milestone,” she said.
As part of KEMSA’s commitment to supporting UHC delivery, the Authority, Ms Mwadime said, maintains a robust infrastructure and supply chain capacity to guarantee access and delivery of quality HPTs to about 11,500 facilities in the national public health care system.
On his part, KEMSA Acting CEO Mr John Kabuchi confirmed that the Authority had undertaken specific measures to support the national UHC delivery.
The measures, he said, include KEMSA policy alignment efforts with the draft UHC Policy 2020-2030 earlier developed to guide the realisation of the UHC. The Authority, he disclosed, is collaborating with players in the public health system, including the Ministry of Health and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and County Governments to actively ensure supply chain excellence to the remotest parts of the country for essential medicines, among other HPTs.
“KEMSA’s role in the success of UHC is the provision of quality, accessible and affordable Health Products and Technologies sourced from local and international suppliers,” Mr Kabuchi said adding that “the ongoing efforts to scale up the rollout of UHC are laudable and KEMSA will be at hand to play its facilitative role particularly the competitive sourcing, quality assurance, warehousing and the last mile delivery of essential medicines countrywide.”
By Catherine Muindi
