Page 43 - MANDERA-COUNTY- REVIEW-3RD-EDITION

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In addition to poor infrastructure and inade- in infrastructure development since 2013. The automation of health information in Man-
quate qualified medical practioners, the Coun- Health equipment dera County Referral Hospital is complete and
ty could not attract and retain skilled health The County Government, with support from will soon be cascaded to all sub-county hospi-
workers. This further led to the deterioration of partners like UNFPA, has procured assorted tals. The number of health information officers
healthcare services. As a matter of fact, health equipment for all health facilities - obstetric, ra- was also increased from one before devolu-
facilities operated at only three per cent staffing diological, laboratory and theatre equipment. tion to 12 in 2015.
level, far from the recommended WHO stan- This has led to improvements in the quality of
dard of three health workers per 1,000 people. health services, especially maternal health-
Timely and adequate referral system has been care. Health products and technology
a major problem that has made it difficult to re- The supply of pharmaceutical, non-pharma-
spond to emergencies and save human lives, ceutical and other essential products, has
especially in cases of prolonged and compli- Immunisation services been enhanced through contracting a govern-
cated labour among pregnant women. Provision of immunisation services is critical ment agency (KEMSA), and about 600 tonnes
to reduced infant mortality and requires func- of supplies have been procured to treat the
Mandera County Government has increased tional and proper infrastructure. In Mandera, most common ailments. The availability of es-
healthcare financing, with an average annual the services are now offered in 45 health fa- sential drugs and supplies has seen increased
budgetary allocation of Sh1.6 billion, which cilities, which is more than double the number utilisation of healthcare facilities from 15 per
translates to 600 per cent increase from health- of facilities (18) that previously offered the ser- cent in 2012 to 65 per cent in 2015.
care financing before devolution to address vices. This has led to the realisation of more
its policy objectives and reduce inequalities in fully-immunised children before their first birth- Health leadership
healthcare. To improve infrastructure (physical, days - from less than 7,630 in 2012 to 13,420 This was set up to attain a well-performing
equipment, transport and ICT) coverage, the children by 2015. health system. It has been developed for all
County Government has increased the number sub-county hospitals, referral hospitals and
of referral hospitals from one to three in order to Referral services County headquarters. The result has been a
improve access to specialised services in the robust management structure to spearhead
first one year of devolution, while three more the planning and implementation of health ac-
hospitals have been upgraded from level three tivities.
to level four. The number of primary healthcare
facilities has also been increased from 18 to
68. To improve access to primary healthcare, Public private partnership
25 new dispensaries and 25 new housing units This kind of partnership is key to offering qual-
for health workers were constructed in the ity and responsive healthcare. In this regard,
2014/2015 financial year. the Mandera County Government has part-
The County had no ambulance services be- nered with bilateral donors and NGOs such as
Health Infrastructure fore devolution, but it has now partnered with UNFPA, KRCS, UNICEF, WHO, SCI, IRK, AM-
Kenya Red Cross Society to provide seven REF, HPA and the national Ministry of Health to
fully-equipped ambulances, which are strate- implement specific activities, including mater-
gically stationed in all sub-counties to provide nal health, immunisation, HIV/TB, nutrition and
emergency referrals. Besides these seven, community health strategy.
the county has acquired through partners The county is in the process of finalising a
five new more ambulances and distributed four year partnership with Philips for equiping
them across the seven sub counties.This has county health facilities.
increased the number of patients who receive
timely and quality referral totaling to 3,955 with Going forward, the ministry, through its strate-
1,449 being Maternal cases referrals. gic plan is planning to:
Twenty two modern maternity hospitals have
been constructed while 2 new modern ma- • Roll out the Kenya Community Health Strat-
ternities are under construction at Elwak and Health workforce egy and set up 50 community health units
Mandera county Referral hospitals. The county increased the number of health by the end of 2017 in a bid to improve ac-
workforce to 833 including 265 nurses, 39 cess to healthcare services in the entire
All these are geared towards reducing ma- doctors, 108 clinical officers, 25 pharm tech County.
ternal mortality through provision of skilled and 47 lab technicians among others thus im-
deliveries. Consequently, deliveries in public proving the staffing level by 554 per cent. This • Continue reducing maternal mortality to an
hospital facilities has increased from 3,800 to increase in health workforce also represents acceptable level through an integrated ap-
over 15000 safe deliveries while antenatal at- 45 per cent of the optimal staffing levels re- proach using the M-CARE strategy that is
tendance has improved from 8,900 to 12,300 quired by our health sector compared to the already in place.
pregnant women. The county government in insignificant three per cent increase before
a bid to improve maternal health care is in the devolution. • Change the face of Mandera Referral Hos-
process of constructing 2 new operating the- This has enabled the Ministry of Health to pital by setting up a modern outpatient de-
atres for Lafey and Banisa sub counties to offer open 40 more public healthcare facilities. The partment, maternity, theatre and a paediat-
comprehensive obstetric care. Cumulatively, Ministry of Health heavily invested in capac- ric ward.
the county Government has spent Sh2.9 billion ity development for healthcare workers. To
date, more than 290 health workers have been • Put up maternity wings for all new health
trained in different areas. facilities by 2020 and upgrade five health
centres to level four.
Health information
Health information provides the basis for • Improve access to specialised healthcare
monitoring and evaluation in healthcare. It has by ensuring availability of specialists and
been improved through procurement of stan- modern equipment.
dard reporting tools, which has enabled the
health sector to track performance targets set
to address its objectives.