Governor Abdulswamad Nassir has issued an edict for children below the age of five to receive free medical services in all public health facilities.
The directive is aimed at reducing the upsurge of children seeking treatment at the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital (CPGH), the only facility the Governor had designated two weeks ago to offer free treatment.
“From today, all the public hospitals have been directed that all children under the age of five will receive free treatment to be able to reduce the number of people at CPGH. The Coast General ideally is a referral hospital,” said Governor Nassir during a press briefing.
The Governor said apart from facility improvement funds, the health facilities would also receive additional funds to cater for the treatment of children.
The County Government will from next week roll out medical camps across the 30 wards in health facilities to select 15,000 beneficiaries of the Universal Health Coverage programme dubbed Mombasa Care, he added.
“The aim is to get 15,000 families from all wards to be given medical cover which will be 100 per cent paid for by the County Government. We are going to use our Community Health Promoters (CHP) and the media to create awareness on the programme,” said the Governor.
The initiatives will largely be funded by Own Source Revenue (OSR).
In May, Governor Abdulswamad Nassir commissioned 2,387 Community Health Promoters (CHPs) who will be receiving monthly stipends.
The Governor reiterated his commitment to enhancing the provision of basic interventions for healthcare services through the Mombasa Care Programme.
“One of the key ways to achieve this was through regularizing a compensation mechanism for CHPs as they play an important role in advocating for underserved communities to receive services,” said Governor Nassir.
By Sadik Hassan
