Plans are underway for residents of Makueni County to acquire biometric cards that they will use to access health services.
The County Administrative Officer (CAO), Jopha Kitonga speaking in his Wote office on Monday, said that the exercise will start on 3rd to 30th June, 2019, whereby there will be two centres in each of the 30 wards in the county.
He said people will pay Sh.500 to register for the biometric card that will be used to access services like drugs, bed fee, dental treatment, laboratory services and imaging among others.
However, the CAO said that the card won’t be used to access specialized services like surgical, implant and post-mortem.
“The main aim of issuing the biometric cards is to help reduce the burden of the vulnerable that cannot access health care services. They will use the card to access health care in nine hospitals within the county namely Makueni referral hospital, Makindu, Mbooni, Tawa, Kisau, Kilungu, Matiliku, Kibwezi and Sultan Hamud,” he said.
The CAO further disclosed that residents will have to come with their identity cards and birth certificates, while birth notification cards will be used to register children.
Kitonga revealed that they have trained 80 clerks to do the registration throughout the county, while appealing to the residents to turn out in large numbers to make the exercise a success.
During the month long exercise, the county government of Makueni is targeting to register 200,000 households.
By Ann Murigi/Franciscar Kinyili
