The Governor Mr.Ferdinand Waititu of Kimabu County has appealed to the National Government to boost medical facilities in his county due to the influx of patients from neighboring counties who seek medicare in the area.
Mr. Waititu who was speaking while hosting the Cabinet secretary for health Ms. Sicily Kariuki in his office today said owing to the proximity of Kiambu to Nairobi County, many of the patients sought medicare in the area.
“Thousands of people thronged Kiambu for treatment from neighbouring counties for treatment in our hospitals and the National government should support us to equip our health facilities to the required standards”, said governor Waititu.
This support will also go a long way in ensuring that patients were attended to from their proximity and enabling all Kenyans to access Universal Health Care(UHC).
UHC, Waititu said is among the Big Four Agenda of the Jubilee government.
“Seventy(70) per cent of the patients in our health institutions were drawn from neighboring counties of Nairobi, Machakos, Nakuru and Murang”a due their proximity to Kiambu which was overstretching our sources” said Mr. Waititu.
He reiterated that health was a constitutional right for the Kenyan citizens and that when the National Government came in to support areas that were densely populated, it was alleviating the suffering of the patients who would have been compelled to travel all the way to Kenyatta National hospital thus reducing congestion in the referral hospital.
He cited areas like Mathari, Kahawa West, Kasarani, Githurai, Dandora, Uthiru Gichagi and Mathare which he noted preferred to seek medical services from health facilities in Kiambu County than going to those in Nairobi County.
Governor Waititu noted that the influx was an indication that the service they were receiving was excellent and there was need to boost the morale of the health workers as well as the infrastructure.
The governor also made a passionate appeal to the National Government to take over the paying of salaries for doctors who were currently on study leave.
“If the National government takes over paying about 94 doctors who are back in school, the County Government will be in a position to employ other doctors to fill the gap and it will ease the workload of the doctors in the area” he told the Cabinet secretary.
The governor noted that the absence of the doctors on study leave from their workplaces had greatly affected some sections in the health sector and the solution would be to employ other personnel.
The governor however lauded the doctors in all the hospitals and other health facilities for working tirelessly while treating the big number of patients on a daily basis.
The governor noted that the extra effort put in by the doctors, nurses and clinical officers on duty cannot go unnoticed.
“This health workers sacrifice a lot to ensure that all patients approximately 700-1000 per day are attended promptly and that nobody is denied service” he said.
On her part, the Cabinet Secretary agreed with the governor that health workers in Kiambu County were doing a good job.
She promised that the National government would liaise with those from the county with a view of improving areas that had been pointed out.
She particularly singled out immunization of Polio which Kiambu county surpassed the target and scored 120 per cent.
The CS congratulated the health workers for their teamwork which enable them to reach out to more children than all counties that were carrying out the exercise.
Kiambu County was among the counties which were at risk after the world health organization issued an alert that 12 counties in Kenya were not fully declared free of polio thus compelling the Government to undertake the exercise.
By Lydia Shiroya
