The Garissa County Department of Health and Sanitation has acquired three motorcycles to enhance service delivery at the grassroots level.
Flagging off the motorcycles outside his office Tuesday, the county secretary Abdi Sheikh said the bikes are meant to ease mobility challenges among health workers serving the grassroots Vulnerable and Marginalized Groups (VGMs).
The motorcycles were purchased through the Transforming Health Systems World Bank Project for the financial year 2020/2021.
The World Bank project is a five-year project that aims to improve the utilization and quality of primary healthcare services with a focus on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) services.
The motorcycles will be stationed at Iftin Sub-County Hospital, Police Line Dispensary and Sankuri Health Centres which are frequented by the VMGs to conduct outreach services, defaulter tracing, home visits and referrals.
Abdi pledged his support for the project that will be implemented jointly by the national government’s Ministry of Health and the County department of health and sanitation.
“The programme is designed to bring healthcare closer to the people. Let us make use of these mobile mode of transportation to serve the wananchi,” he said.
The county secretary said that the county is not only committed to serving the people but transforming their lives.
The county health chief officer Hassan Anshur said the project is aimed at improving access to quality primary health care services with a focus on RMNCAH.
On Covid-19 pandemic, Anshur said that the disease had brought into focus the linkages between health, economy, environment and social protection policies and mechanisms.
“Unfortunately, as counties continue to tackle the pandemic and look towards recovery, public health gains reported over the past 10 years continue to be lost,” Anshur said.
“Therefore, it is urgent to invest in building resilient health systems as a central component of recovery and thus resume the path towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Universal Health in the country,” he added.
The project focuses on three pillars namely improving Primary Healthcare by giving grants to counties and financing family planning commodities through Kemsa; System strengthening by improving quality of care through policies, guidelines and strategies; monitoring and evaluation to ensure quality of standards and reforms in health financing and project management.
Present were ICT chief officer Rashid Farah, Director Family Health Mohamed Haret, sub-county public health nurse Aden Hussein and county reproductive health coordinator Fatuma Iman among other senior county officials.
By Jacob Songok
