Busia Deputy Governor Moses Mulomi has advised Sub County health facilities’ management to encourage more people registered with the National Hospital Insurance Fund to seek services at their facilities.
Speaking to heads of departments at Nambale Sub County hospital, Mulomi said that the move will enable the facilities to raise more funds.
“Some small-scale health facilities are getting good amounts of money through NHIF,” he said, adding that NHIF was currently the largest generator of revenue for the health sector.
He stated that the County raised around Sh122 million last financial year despite the challenge of shortage of drugs adding, “If we had drugs, we would have raised more than Sh400 million.”
The DG therefore urged the management of all public health facilities to encourage the local residents to register with them noting NHIF could assist in financing the County’s projects.
Mulomi further said that Governors were pushing for the implementation of the Public Health Fund whose Bill was currently before Parliament. “We hope that the bill will be cleared in two weeks as bank accounts have already been opened,” he said, while disclosing that Busia County has set aside Sh50 million as a startup fund.
Mulomi at the same time assured that plans were underway to ensure that all health facilities across the county have their own sources of water.
He also disclosed that efforts are being made to establish at least one hospital in each of the seven Sub counties and upgrade a number of dispensaries to health centres with a view to bring services closer to the people.
The DG also inspected a modern theatre, a male ward and a morgue being constructed at Nambale hospital by the World Bank through the Kenya Devolution support Programme.
By Salome Alwanda
