Over 90,000 mothers in Makueni and Kisii counties have benefitted under the Kenya Quality Ecosystem (KQE), in a partnership with the counties, Jacaranda Health and Thinkwell Non-governmental organization, aimed at reducing maternal and child mortality rates.
Consequently, doctors, nurses and clinical officers have been trained with surgical skills to handle complicated issues of pregnant mother’s in the two counties for the last one year, since inception of the project.
Through the programme, pregnant mothers register and get information from health workers and know when to seek timely medical attention until they give birth.
“In the past one year, through our digital platform, mum’s get an SMS from medics who are on call and advise them accordingly, since they get timely feedback that helps them until they give birth,” said KQE Deputy Country Director, Dr. Job Makoyo, during Cross-County Forum at a Makindu hotel in the Sub-county.
“In terms of building capacity, we have trained about 100 doctors, nurses and clinical officers with basic skills to handle emergencies of surgical complications in Makueni and Kisii counties,” added Makoyo, while speaking to the media.
The participants were medics drawn from Mombasa, Kisii and Makueni counties.
The Deputy Country Director also revealed that there is a lot of data, that can be used strengthen the entire health system and help reduce antenatal mortality, hence have a healthy and happy generation.
On her part, Jacaranda Health Country Director, Cynthia Kahumbura, said their mission was to integrate private sector tools through the digital health solution geared towards empowering mum’s with information to enable them seek medical attention at the right time and place.
At the same time, Kahumbura said that they want the County health and County leadership informed through regular and efficient data reporting, through the real-time KQE dashboard, that would help in identifying gaps and address them promptly.
“Collectively, we aim to address the service delivery gaps in maternal health that mother’s face in their journey to receiving care in our public hospitals,” noted Kahumbura who opened the forum officially.
Speaking at the same event, Makueni Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jnr said due to ignorance, some pregnant mothers fail to go to hospital, when they have swelling legs or bleeding that endangers them and the babies they carry.
Consequently, the governor noted that it was imperative to establish why babies die in certain places while in others no fatalities occur.
“In Matiliku Sub- county Hospital, there has been no single case of mother’s losing their lives. We need to know the innovations they have to prevent these deaths from occurring,” he observed.
By John Mutinda and Emmaculate Kinyumu
