Monthly Archives: June 2018

Kenya Conducting Nation-wide Inspections of Medical Centers before UHC Implementation

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The Kenyan Administration has begun inspections of health facilities as they prepare to deploy their universal healthcare program. Governor Jackson Mandago spoke yesterday said that the inspection would be the necessary first step before they can proceed with their Universal Healthcare objective. 121 Healthcare Centers and staff will be inspected as part of the process.

“The assessment will assist us even as we prepare to roll out our universal healthcare. We have to make sure we have a full report on maternal and child care so that we can optimise human resources,” said Mandago. The governor went on to reveal that the administration has sought the assistance of 50 medical experts from various institutions from around the nation to conduct these inspections.

The specialists will come from several top Medical establishments such as Moi University, Maseno, Kenya Medical Training College and Moi teaching and Referral Hospital and others.

“We hope to be among the first counties to successfully implement universal healthcare. At the end of the audit, I will be able to share it with my fellow governors so that they can also adopt it. We want to be leaders in championing the Government’s Big Four agenda,” said Mandago.

Evelyne Rotich, County Health Minister said that a comprehensive inspection will be overseen by the government. The objective of the inspection will be to find gaps in the Kenyan Healthcare system and plug them. They are ready to assess and give us a report that we will work on. At the moment, as a department we have received blessings from the governor and we are looking forward to know the status of our facilities,” said Rotich. Dr Faith Yego, the team leader, said they would be using an assessment tool that has been developed and validated through facilitation from the Health ministry and World Bank.

Kenyan Medical Training College Announces New Campus

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A new Kenyan Medical Training College (KMTC) Campus is in the works in the Mukurweni Constituency and is expected to be ready by September next year. Phillip Kaloki made a statement confirming the same after visiting the 10-acre space reserved for the college. He was joined by Mukurweini Constituency MP, Mr. Anthony Kiai and planning executive Daniel Kwai. This move comes in response to the country’s growing need for medical products and infrastructure.

“This will be the third KMTC campus in the county and we hope it will be completed by September next year so we can have our first intake. This will improve health services,” Kaloki said yesterday.

This project will mark KMTC’s 66th campus in Kenya. It has been an initiative of the Mukurweini MP and the county government, who will be stakeholders in the project. Mr. Kiai revealed that the Constituency Development Fund will contribute Sh20 million towards expenses.

“There will be an initial seed capital of Sh20 million from CDF. Other than land, county government has also pledged an additional Sh20 million as we start construction works,” he said. Kwai said. The Mukurweini  Central Ward has also given its full backing to the project as it is expected to generate a significant number of jobs in the area. The College will be expected to enroll around 200 students initially across a variety of programmes like nursing, orthopedics, pediatrics etc.

“We hope to grow the campus until it has a population of up to 1000 students. We will continue to be keen on quality considering 85 per cent of health professionals in Kenya have trained at KMTC,” Kaloki said. Two other campuses are under construction in Kirinyaga and Narok. There are plans to ensure each county has a KMTC campus.

President of Rwanda Impressed by Progress Made Towards Achieving Universal Healthcare

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Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, has said that Rwanda has witnessed its all time low in maternal and child mortality rates. Community-based health insurance, good external partnerships and community health workers are responsible for decline in the numbers.

Rwanda has been increasing its network exponentially in terms of community health workers and volunteers in villages. This is evidently helping with the rural development as medical facilities are not reaching rural part of Rwanda more efficiently.

Kagame claims, close to 90% of Rwandans are currently enrolled in health insurance. Rwandan government subsidizes only one-third of the cost with contributions from beneficiaries taking care of the remaining two-thirds.

On the role technology played in the process, he said, “Integrating digital applications and new technologies into our health system has also made a difference, and we are now using drone aircraft to quickly deliver blood and medical supplies to rural hospitals.”

President emphasized on universal health coverage, says, it is possible for countries and all income levels. It is rather an opportunity and WHO (world health organization) is supporting this as well.

He added that, while advocating more funding to be channeled towards achieving UHC by 2030, he urged increased training and employment in the health workforce.

New Imaging Equipment with Upgraded Technology Will Change Medical Diagnosis

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The radiologist, Ernest Wandera, Kakamega Level 5 hospital, said that the 64- slice new imaging technology will change medical diagnosis with its new capability to pick out several ailments.

This equipment help image the moving body part and captures it at once. Body parts like the heart are constantly moving and it gets very difficult to capture them at once and hence figuring out the problem becomes a difficult task altogether.

“It is just like different smartphones having varying features even though at the very basic definition, they are both phones,” says Mr Wandera, who sees an average 15 patients a day. He is one of the 800 radiologists selected for training in a Kenya- China medical equipment partnership.

Earlier, through the old technology it was required to push the dye through a needle, which was very risky. However, now this upgraded technology has made things a lot easier increasing the speed of operations and enabling better coverage while imaging. Apart from this, another addition is the contrast agency pump which can push dyes into patient’s blood vessels.

The machine is expected to be generated with UPS (uninterrupted power supply) unit and a standby generator.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) equipment that has been installed over the past four years are used to scan through flesh, and widely used to detect tumors.