Nyandarua residents have been urged to enroll in the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) to ease their burden of paying for hospital bills and other health services.
Top officials in the Department of Health led by the County Executive, Dr Zakayo Kariuki Gichuki said this during the activities to mark the close of International Nurses Week in Nyandarua County.
Kariuki said that if the residents joined NHIF in large numbers, the county would be able to improve on health infrastructure because of the allocation they would receive from the health insurer.
“Residents can assist the County to fast-track improvement of our health infrastructure by enrolling in NHIF in large numbers like in other counties.
“The County will soon pass a bill to ring fence funds that the Health department gets in NHIF reimbursements so that it is ploughed back to improve hospitals,” said Kariuki.
He, at the same time, lauded health workers saying they work under strenuous conditions but still deliver.
“Ninety-nine percent of patients who visit our hospitals walk home healthy. Let the people not castigate our workers because of the one percent of patients who slip away,” he said.
The County Executive promised to push for promotion and re-designations of nurses as necessary and also allow them to go for training and further studies.
The nurses through their spokespeople said they felt in good hands since the health docket is headed by people who understand the health terrain of the County.
Purity Gichohi who heads Kasuku health centre in Ol Joro Orok sub-county said losing a patient is a traumatizing experience for health workers.
“People don’t know the stress we go through when we lose a child or mother during delivery, not just because of the written explanation we have to make, but because it robs us of the joy of seeing a mother and child walk home healthy,” she said at the Ol Kalou AIC Church.
By Antony Mwangi
