The World Bank will be investing Sh100 million to modernize the healthcare systems in Taita Taveta County.
This emerged during a tour of the Moi County Referral Hospital- Voi Monday, by the County Government officials led by Governor Andrew Mwadime and representatives of System Partners Limited, an ICT company acting as the link to the World Bank.
Welcoming the investment, Mwadime expressed gratitude to the World Bank for such an integral input to the heart of the county’s healthcare and welcomed more investors to support and lift the well-being of the county and the coastal region in general.
“We welcome the World Bank’s investment with both hands. It touches the heart of our healthcare space and will play an integral role in revolutionizing our service delivery. Our doors are open for investors with an interest to support and lift the well-being of our people,” he said.
According to Martin King’ori of System Partners Limited, the IT firm spearheading the investment, the smart health system, dubbed Funsoft HMIS/EERP will among other things streamline record keeping, track the movement of drugs and manage workforce as well as payroll.
It will also enhance better healthcare service delivery by ensuring accurate capturing of patients’ information, symptoms, diagnosis, and prognosis.
“Funsoft HMIS/EERP is a game changer in healthcare services delivery. It will improve data processing and information utilization in the areas of record keeping, drug movement tracking, as well as managing the workforce information, and payroll. There will be better capturing and using of patient’s information to help in diagnosis and prognosis,” said King’ori.
In recent years, Taita Taveta County has been hitting news headlines for biting drugs shortages and healthcare human resource problems, resulting in poor service delivery and frequent industrial actions by health workers.
However, Mwadime said that’s now water under the bridge as his administration will steer away from the missteps made by the previous regime, especially in the management of healthcare.
“In the past, our county has been in the news for the wrong reasons. We’ve had acute drug shortages and demonstrations by our health workers. All that is behind us now as we will strive to put the best foot forward in managing our healthcare affairs,” said Mwadime.
Among the thorny issues bedeviling the county’s healthcare landscape are the issues of drug shortages and ghost workers. On the latter, the governor ordered a workforce audit to weed out ghost workers and save the county millions of taxpayers’ money.
“We’re going to audit our workforce and weed out ghost workers that gobble up millions of shillings in salaries and allowances,” said Mwadime on 30th August 2022, when he met county workers’ unions’ officials.
By Arnold Linga Masila
