BY CATHERINE KARONG'O
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| null     1/1 NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 31 - Some health facilities run by the City Council of Nairobi (CCN) will in the next three months be surrendered to the Ministry of Medical Services. Minister Anyang' Nyong'o has told Capital News that they have had discussions with the Ministry of Local government and the CCN and agreed that his Ministry would take over some of the health facilities. "They should identify the health facilities that we should begin with because there are some which are functioning well but there are others which are idle and have low capacity," the Minister said in an interview. "So together with the City Council, we should do a harmonious job to make sure that we systematically and in an organised manner hive off some of these services from Kenyatta (National Hospital) to these facilities so that we take Kenyatta nearer the people," he explained. Less than two weeks ago, Professor Nyong'o had proposed that all health facilities run by the CCN be surrendered to his Ministry for efficient running because most were underutilised. "Under the new Constitution of course other proposals can be made but we should look carefully to ensure that these facilities are used to ease the pressure that comes to Mbagathi and Kenyatta National Hospitals so that some of the primary health care services are rendered at these facilities," the Minister had said earlier. He also revealed that plans were underway to have a state of the art diagnostic centre in Nairobi for majority of ailments. "We have negotiated with the Indians and an Indian hospital is opening a big diagnostic centre off Waiyaki Way in about three months time," Professor Nyong'o said. "It will reduce the cost of diagnosis in this country drastically because India knows how to offer these services more cost effectively and my aim is to make health care affordable and accessible to Kenyans both in the private and public sectors," he stated. At the same time he said that the hospital reform process where they were modernising and rehabilitating about 67 health facilities countrywide required at least Sh585 billion to complete. The Minister said that the current annual budgetary allocation of Sh27 billion was not enough to carry out the necessary reforms that would see an improvement in service delivery in all public health facilities. "These services are not going to drop like manna from heaven!" he stated. "They will have to be delivered from our health facilities. If these facilities don't have equipment, human resources or diagnostic services then of course they will not deliver the services required." He said that they were currently sourcing funds from government, donors and the private sector. "It's a major task; don't expect us to perform miracles if the money is not there," he cautioned. The Minister also commented on the proposed HIV/AIDS Fund and said it was crucial for the country to take care of its own programmes especially in the wake of dwindling donor funding. Funds from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria were expected to end in 2015 while that of the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) could end in 2012. "We must build the capacity to deal with HIV/AIDS and not depend on the global fund forever," the Minister said. On non-communicable diseases, he said that he would have a meeting in Nairobi on the third week of August to discuss how they can be dealt with. "I have also spoken to certain people who manufacture cancer equipment in the United States and they are coming here on the third week of August to discuss and we are making proposals to them that rather than buy this equipment which is very expensive, they should lease it to us so that we pay as we use," he stated. Follow the author at https://twitter.com/kittiekatk |
Read more: http://capitalfm.co.ke/news/Kenyanews/Nyong%92o-takes-over-council-clinics-12248.html#ixzz1IBfupkZY
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