Wajir Governor raises alarm over medical supply theft despite high healthcare budget

Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi has claimed that his administration is struggling with pilferage of medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, and essential medical items at various health facilities across the county.

This comes despite Governor Abdullahi’s administration allocating 40 per cent of its annual budget to healthcare, with healthcare workers alone consuming a substantial £2 billion.

 Speaking at Wajir Afya House during the commissioning of 200 healthcare workers on Thursday, Governor Abdullahi stated that his administration is also grappling with staff attendance issues at various workstations, attributed to the presence of ghost workers which has adversely affected service delivery.

 "We are developing an automation plan for our human resources at all health facilities, including the county referral hospital. This plan will also help track medical commodities being distributed to various hospitals across the county as well as help in collecting our own generated revenue," said Abdullahi. "Remember, we inherited a dysfunctional hospital system where staff did not show up for work, the main hospital was filthy, and it was filled with ghost workers."

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 He explained that his administration has renovated the Wajir County Referral Hospital, earmarked to be upgraded to a level five hospital, and has constructed an additional 42 health facilities while renovating another 11.

 "The idea behind recruiting these healthcare workers is to staff the facilities that have already been built with government funds, ensuring they provide the intended services. We are also constructing a Level Five hospital, which is progressing visibly, and I am hopeful it will be up and running by December," he said.

 He said that his administration is at an advanced stage of upgrading eight level three health centres to level four hospitals. This even as he revealed that he had asked his county team to make plans to upgrade additional level three health centres, built with the aid of the World Bank project in Wajir South Constituency, to be upgraded to level four hospitals.

 "We have recruited 10 new doctors and 200 additional healthcare workers, including nurses, clinicians, radiologists, public health specialists, and nutrition officers among others.

The recruits will be posted to health facilities across the county, bringing our healthcare workforce to over 1,300 people," he said.

 "As you may be aware, we are partnering with the national government on the issue of Community Health Promoters, having provided smartphones and kitted over 1,197 of them," he added.

 Currently, 30 medical doctors are working at the Wajir County Referral Hospital, including 18 specialists. At the sub-county levels, there are 6 medical officers, with 16 currently on study leave. Overall, the county now boasts a total of 65 medical doctors.

 "To further enhance access to healthcare, we have been operationalising new health facilities and upgrading health centres to level 4 hospitals. Today, I am pleased to announce that our administration is inducting an additional 212 multi-disciplinary healthcare workers," the governor stated.

 "These include 129 nurses, 12 health records officers, 7 public health officers, 9 radiographers, 4 VCT counsellors, 5 dental specialists, 8 nutritionists, 9 pharmaceutical technologists, 13 clinicians, 10 medical officers, and 8 anaesthetists," he added.

 The governor disclosed that his administration is constructing a state-of-the-art accident and emergency wing at the Wajir County Referral Hospital, establishing a satellite blood bank and mortuary, and upgrading 8 health centres to level 4 hospitals. Furthermore, he said, his administration has renovated and operationalised 52 health facilities across our 6 sub-counties.

 "These initiatives have enabled us to offer advanced medical services closer to our communities, reducing the need for long journeys for specialised care," he held.

 He also said that his administration had streamlined the supply of medicines and non-pharmaceuticals through partnerships with both the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) and other suppliers to ensure the availability of drugs throughout every corner of the county.