Kiambu County Governor Paul Kimani Wamatangi has held a meeting with the County Health Promoters (CPHs) at the county administration headquarters in Kiambu Town.
The meeting addressed challenges affecting the efficient delivery of services by (CHPs) and explored strategies to overcome them. It also provided an opportunity for the health promoters to engage directly with the governor.
Wamatangi, who outlined key milestones achieved by his administration over the past two years, especially the famous `Wamatangi Care` initiative, committed to increasing the current stipend given to the CHPS from Sh2,500 a more reasonable amount going forward.
“This facilitation fee is modest and cannot be considered a salary, but rather a token of appreciation for the invaluable services you provide to our community. My administration is committed to increase it by January next year,” he said.
The governor commended the CHPs for their patience regarding the delayed stipends and assured them that their October and November payments would be deposited into their accounts by Wednesday.
Wamatangi promised that his administration is implementing new strategies to strengthen the County healthcare system, with the Community Health Act playing a central role in this vision.
“The Act aims to ensure that every resident of Kiambu has access to essential healthcare services at the community level, while empowering health promoters to actively contribute to better health outcomes,” he said, while directing that all 3,070 CHPs be enrolled in a comprehensive care program, where they will receive the necessary support and resources to provide quality healthcare.
He further promised to station the CHPs across the county hospitals to aid in various roles among them accountability and transparency in the administration and distribution of medicines, adding that his administration introduced the programme formerly known as the Community Health Volunteer program to enhance healthcare services in the area.
The governor, explained that several batches of medical supplies, valued at Sh84 million have since been delivered and will be distributed across all medical facilities in the county, with additional supplies expected in the coming days.
“We expect those of you assigned to the hospitals to ensure that all supplies are used appropriately, with no mismanagement or diversion to private health institutions,” he added.
Wamatangi further promised to support the ongoing training for the CHPs, enabling them to earn promotions and work in health facilities across the county, while promising them membership cards, along with work gear such as gumboots, coats, and umbrellas that will be distributed by next month.
The governor further promised to provide free SHIF (Social Health Insurance Fund) coverage for the Community Health Promoters by catering for all the associated fees, thus urging them to serve as good ambassadors to the community by helping to extend and strengthen health services in the country, ” he said.
The County Executive for Health Services Dr. Elias Maina, commended all stakeholders involved in the CHP program, emphasizing its significant benefits to the community.
He noted that through their collaboration with health facilities, CHPs have greatly improved service delivery, saving many lives in the process and encouraged them and other residents to register at the SHIF platform in order to access healthcare services.
On his part, the county Chief Officer for health Dr. Patrick Nyaga said Kiambu is one of the leading regions in the SHIF registration platform, with 500,000 residents listed so far, against a target of 2 million.
The Director of Public Health and Sanitation, Teresiah Kariuki challenged CHPs to work towards delivering, noting that although the number of registered people has steadily increased, there were also challenges, where some CHPs have no registered any household.
She also mentioned that initially they were struggling with the issue of imposters posing as health professionals but now with the issuance of members cards underway, this will be sorted, since it will be easy to know the legitimate health promoters.
Kameno Ward Member of County Assembly (MCA) Peter Mburu, proposed that all government medical facilities eliminate stores, as they are often used to stockpile medicines, and other medical supplies urging all MCAs to come up with laws that ensure all supplies are displayed in the hospital pharmacy, not stored away in the backrooms.
Mburu further noted that there have been instances where the pharmacy is empty, while the store is stocked with supplies, and patients are instructed to purchase medications from private pharmacies.
The meeting was also attended by the County Executive for Roads, Transport and Public Works Wilfred Mwenda Kihara; Ting’ang’a Ward MCA, Lawrence Mwaura, Manager of Vision Impact Project Kiambu County Stella Waithira, CHPs representative Rachael Maina and other members of the County administration and stakeholders.
By John Kariba
