Tough tasks that await Nakhumincha in the health docket this year
By George.Kebaso, January 4, 2024The year 2023 was an eventful one for Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha. This year however, will be significant for the health docket.
Only a year into the docket, the supplies chain expert has overseen major reforms at the ministry, all geared towards meeting the global Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 3.8 of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030.
After the rejuvenation of the programme that has witnessed numerous false starts, it will require meticulous planning and sheer effort to drive this process forward.
In October last year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) observed; “the world is off track to make significant progress towards universal health coverage (Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target 3.8) by 2030.”
The UN health body further noted that the improvements to health services coverage across the globe had stagnated since 2015, and the proportion of the population that faced catastrophic levels of out-of-pocket health spending increased continuously since 2000.
This global pattern, WHO noted is consistent across all regions and the majority of countries, which saw the UHC service coverage index increasing from 45 to 68 between 2000 and 2021.
Increasing coverage
“However, recent progress in increasing coverage has slowed compared to pre-2015 gains, rising only three index points between 2015 and 2021 and showing no change since 2019,” revealed the WHO, further showing that the proportion of the population not covered by essential health services had decreased by about 15 per cent between 2000 and 2021, with minimal progress made after 2015.
Coupled with local findings during a four-month health facility census between August and December this year, which yielded huge gaps in healthcare delivery, Nakhumicha will be one of the key personalities in Kenya to watch this year.
The findings showed that 736 facilities, about five per cent, were not completely assessed or had incomplete data.
About 203 facilities had denied access to their premises, while 1,560 facilities, about 10 per cent, had closed down operations at the time of assessment.
Of the total targeted facilities, 2,633 did not appear in the Kenya Master Facility List (new), and overall, only 40 per cent, were National Health Insurance Find (NHIF) accredited.
“Among government facilities, only about half are accredited with NHIF,” the report released by acting Health Director General, Dr Patrick Amoth indicated, further showing that about half of the facilities reported having access to functional ambulances, meaning the rest were operating with the emergency evacuation.
Besides other glaring gaps such as poor equipment, lack of pharmaceutical products, inadequate staff, there is general poor infrastructure.
“The gathered data will significantly contribute to health sector reviews and evidence-based decision-making processes to strengthen the country’s health services,” said the CS when she presided over the unveiling of the report.