County’s Health Committee claims mess in running health sector

A report by the county assembly has revealed that the Executive is finding it hard to fix the mess in the health sector. [Courtesy]

A report by the Assembly’s Health Committee dubbed ‘Report on the challenges affecting health service delivery in Bungoma County’ said one of the key factors affecting the health service delivery was weak governance structures, leadership and management within the sector.

The George Makari-chaired committee said through its investigations, there was lack of protocol in the department leading to divide in implementation of policies.

“There is lack of protocol in the department with poor flow of information from top-down and down-top strategy of engagement. There are tendencies of skipping critical team members in decision making leading to poor decisions and execution of activities,” read the report.

The committee also found out that there were differences between the County Executive Committee member and health administrators leading to no team work within the department.

“There is disconnect between the County Executive Committee Member and the technical people in the Department whereby the Executives own the finances while the technical people have the patients with little communication between them,” the report read.

The committee also revealed that the staff was demotivated largely by the uncoordinated transfers of health workers without proper consultations.

The report stated that certain staff were transferred irregularly against a health ministry policy where staff were transferred annually or after two years.

“Unlike previously when staff transfers were done annually or after two years. This has affected service delivery especially if a staff is transferred to a facility where they do not utilize their skills,” read the report.

The committee also revealed that there was inadequate financing of health care services. The report stated that finance was centralized thus leading to the delay in service delivery while the county develops work plans for implementation which are not done as funds are diverted to other activities.

The committee recommended that health care should have teamwork in order to improve service delivery as top management and workers should embrace consultations and clear communication channels.

 “The Department of Health to immediately develop Staff Deployment and Transfer policy/guidelines to address the unwanted and fictitious transfers without objectivity,” read the report.

The committee further recommended that the health care financing should be decentralized and have health management committees at the sub county levels to ensure smooth service delivery.

“This will help to devolve power and resources further to the lower units in the department in order to ease pressure at the top executive level,” the committee recommended.