The smart Primary Care Network (PCN), which will be introduced to the nation next month, will be managed by 100,000 Community Health Promoters (CHPs) who will be hired by the government.
This is an effort to give primary healthcare (PH) priority, which will assist reduce illness load in the nation by focusing more on preventative healthcare rather than curative healthcare.
The CHPs will work and teach people in villages and homes on preventative healthcare, according to Ms. Mary Muthoni, principal secretary of the State Department of Public Health and Professional Standards.
The creation of PCN governance, coordination, and finance frameworks will enable the operationalization of 315 Primary HealthCare Networks (PCNs). On October 20, 2023, Kericho County will host the Mashujaa Day celebration, with the subject “Universal Health Care,” and H. E. the President Dr. William Ruto will announce the creation of a sophisticated Primary Care Network across the nation.
These PCNs are designed to promote care integration across health system levels and increase the effectiveness of the health system by ensuring that everyone receives the best treatment possible. They are also intended to provide an effective system for emergency referrals, enhance resource sharing between levels of care, and enhance data flow for improved decision-making.
“For a long time, the country had concentrated on Curative rather than Preventive healthcare approach which has seen the disease burden increase in the country and hence, cost of healthcare as treatment is costlier than putting in place preventive measures so that we deal with healthcare issues before they become incurable,” Muthoni said.
In order to reduce the burden of disease on the country and enhance the overall quality of life for Kenyans by providing an effective, integrated, and high-quality healthcare system at an affordable price, she noted that Kenya is restructuring the health service delivery system by changing the focus from curative to “preventive and Promotive” health care.
The PS was giving a speech on Friday in Naivasha at a Training of Trainers (ToT) for Community Health Promoters (CHPs), who were selected from all 47 counties in an effort to improve basic healthcare networks in the counties.
The CHPs will also give government officials advice on what services are offered in their communities, where there are gaps, and what needs to be done. They will also assist in making referral systems a part of the universal healthcare system.
Muthoni noted that Government’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) had identified various gaps in the healthcare system which include inadequate Human Resources (HC) for health, health financing to ensure universal healthcare and ineffective supply chain for commodity security..
“To address these challenges, the Government has initiated a structured plan between County Governments and other stakeholders on contribution of stipends for CHPs on a 50/50 basis as well as equipping the 100,000 existing Community Health Promoters with kits, while also leveraging on technology to ease data collection, reporting and ensure quality services,” she said.
She said all the bills pending before Parliament including Social Insurance, Commodity Health, and Facility Improvement Bills are all geared towards improving healthcare provision.
“We are also keen on digitization of the healthcare system through interlinking of health facilities so that healthcare is made easier especially during referrals,” the PS said.
Through innovative health funding mechanisms, which are expected to expand the number of families with health insurance under the new Social Health Insurance (SHI) Package, Muthoni stated that the government wants to enhance the delivery of healthcare to all Kenyans.
On procurement of healthcare products which has been a pain in the neck in the country, the PS announced the establishment of a national health procurement board for bulk purchasing of health products and technologies with the aim of lowering cost of healthcare products through economies of scale and establishment of a fully integrated and interoperable health information ecosystem to drive patient centric services, prevent fraud and improve responsiveness, efficiency, transparency and sharing of health data among health providers.
