State registers 4.6 million households

The Ministry of Health has registered 6.4 million households as it seeks to strengthen community health services across the country.

The ongoing registration drive targets 12 million households for effective planning and enhancement of services, said Public Health and Professional Standards Principal Secretary Mary Muthoni.

The drive included hiring 107,800 Community Health Promoters (CHP) to help strengthen primary health care, she said.

Health outcomes had improved since the launch of the CHP programme, Muthoni said, adding that registering households would provide more exact numbers and where families lived in order to serve them better.

Speaking in Rabuor in Kisumu county during a tour to assess implementation of the programme, Muthoni said the ministry had rolled out training and capacity building for CHPs to ensure they offer cutting-edge services.

The training, she said, includes first aid, testing for hypertension, blood sugar, reminding mothers about the immunisation calendar and other common public health interventions.

The modules were reviewed to include communicable diseases, climate change and sensitisation on Social Health Insurance, Muthjoni said. “We had taken them through the training and kitted them but we shall continue to empower them with the necessary skills and knowledge to ensure they play their role as our primary care providers,” she said.

The CHPs had visited 3.9 million Kenyans with diabetes and referred 60,000 of them to health facilities.

Some 3.8 million Kenyans have been attended to by the CHPs for blood pressure, with some 180,000 cases referred to health facilities.

The CHPs, Muthoni added, have also visited 180,000 children, who were tested for common ailments that affect the age group and some were referred to health facilities.

The information, she said, is available at the click of a button following the rollout of digital health, with the records captured by the CHPs’ gadgets relayed to her office at Afya House.

As the government rolls out the new Social Health Insurance in July, CHPs are sensitising communities to register so that they can access free health services when referred to level 2 and 3 facilities, she noted.

“We have asked them to sensitise people in their respective households to register so that they can benefit from these services once we roll them out,” she said.