Clinicians have urged the state to shift focus to strengthening primary health facilities in an effort to reach more Kenyans with services.
The Kenya Union of Clinical Officers said it is unfortunate that some Kenyans take days to access healthcare due to poor infrastructure and inaccessible roads.
They said despite adopting the Cuban healthcare system, the focus has remained majorly at secondary and tertiary health facilities. This overwhelms the facilities.
“We call for more collaboration in departments including Ministry of Roads to improve road infrastructure in places where people take more than two days to access health centres,” Kuco SG George Gibore said on Tuesday.
“As we talk about UHC, we focus on accessibility, affordability and the quality of services that Kenyans are going to get, when they so need them and where they need them. We do not need to have patients coming to Nairobi to seek services,” he said.
The union said there is need for annual employment of healthcare workers to bridge the existing human resource gaps in the country.
The entry of Covid-19 exposed the fragile health system in the country and has led to loss of lives including those of healthcare workers in the past two years.
The union said the health sector has suffered from prolonged neglect hence more needs to be done to rationalise the systems and achieve universal health coverage.
“We can achieve a desired number of healthcare workers as projected by the WHO and the ministry in the staffing norm if we have enough allocation of funds to employ the desired healthcare workers,” Gibore said.
“When we lack enough healthcare workers and infrastructure, we have a failed system which cannot have a clear referral system,” KUCO chairman Peterson Wachira added.
They clinicians also want the national and county government to hold discussions and come up with a uniform and harmonised management system for human resources, as well as conversion of all contractual employment terms to permanent and pensionable.
They urged the government to establish wellness centres in all workplaces in an effort to help combat the rising burden of mental health in the country.
Gibore said this will be important in providing comprehensive and preventive services especially in mental health.
Other demands made include defined annual increment in health budget towards the realisation of 15 per cent budgetary allocation as per the Abuja Declaration which Kenya is a signatory.
Also the development of a comprehensive policy framework on health human resources capacity improvement.
The union in collaboration with other unions, societies, partners and employers will hold a health workers’ conference in March.
They aim to discuss strategies that will create an effective and resilient health system for attainment of UHC.