Nairobi, Kenya: Nairobi City County governor, Dr Evans Kidero today paid the Cabinet Secretary for Health Services, Dr Cleopa Mailu a courtesy call in his Afya house office.
The governor and the Cabinet Secretary met to discuss ways in which the National and County governments would collaborate in-order to improve health care provision and improvement of health facilities in Nairobi County as well as create more centres of excellence. Dr Kidero said "We are working on modalities to ensure the Kenyatta National Hospital is decongested and most of its referral services and patients are served by existing County health facilities and hospitals. The county government alone cannot provide everything needed in healthcare with the limited budgets even at the national government level. That’s why we are also pursuing Public Private Partnerships (PPP)."
Dr Kidero added that so far Nairobi City County government was targeting the modernization of Pumwani Maternity Hospital, Mbagathi Sub District Hospital and Mutuini District Hospital through PPP arrangement. "We have been negotiating with financiers to invest Sh1.2 billion to make Pumwani a better facility for service delivery, training and research. We are hopeful to reach an agreement on this sooner. This is to mention but a few, but the improvements in healthcare speak for themselves and Nairobi residents – from Korogocho to Karen – are seeing the fruits of devolution. In areas where basic healthcare was unheard off, people now access both outpatient and inpatient services from our level 5 hospitals to our respective health centres which are now operating 24 hours; indeed we have made strides."
Dr Kidero said that despite setbacks experienced by the health sector across the country, quality of healthcare has improved immensely especially in Nairobi City. The governor said that Ksh8 billion, representing 27% of the county's annual budget of Ksh31 billion, had been allocated to the health sector. concludes Dr Kidero every Kenyan has a right to healthcare services; this is most critical in the capital which has a high incidence of diseases due to high population density and other environmental factors that predispose people to infections.