Expert: Health CS nominee welcome but...

Following the nomination of Dr Deborah Mulongo Barasa as the new Health CS, the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union (KMPDU) promptly extended their heartfelt congratulations to her.

“We warmly welcome her to the dutiful responsibility of ensuring quality health care systems for all Kenyans, including decent work for all health workers,” said the union Secretary General, Dr Davji Atellah, in a statement.

Barasa, according to doctors, is a young medical doctor and specialist physician whom they believe will quickly settle the “venomous task of correcting the dispute around internship and constitutionality of social health authority”.

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“We wish Dr Deborah well and fully avail ourselves and our expertise for her success,” added the doctors.

The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority also sent its congratulatory messages. 

The health ministry comes to Dr Barasa, creased by issues she can only overcome by striking a balance between technocrats and politics, the joint spindles on which the Ministry of Health revolves.

If approved, Dr Barasa will handle the respective pillars of health, which include human resources, health system quality assurance, and service delivery.

Among the key issues awaiting the nominee is human resources, which remains composite and has been a harbinger of long-drawn industrial strikes, with the issue of intern doctors sticking out like a sore thumb.

Dr Barasa will also be required to tackle changes in the medical scheme following the repealing of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), which has been replaced by the Social Health Authority (SHA).

The switch is in limbo after the high court nullified the Social Health Insurance Act due to insufficient public participation.

Dr Christine Sadia, a Global Health Policy expert, congratulated Barasa on her nomination.

“I am happy to have Barasa as the first woman doctor nominated for the CS position.

The intern doctors should be her priority. She should settle the matter quickly. It is the training base of all doctors in the country. If she breaks it, all women will be judged as not delivering,” said Sadia.

Internships for medical personnel vexed the recent strikes by doctors, clinical officers, and even lab technicians.

Kenya Union of Clinical Officers through their Secretary General, George Gibore, said the health docket has been looking for a CS who cannot easily be influenced. Someone who can make informed decisions.

Health being devolved, the official said the nominee, if appointed, should be able to coordinate between county and national governments.

The two arms of government have in the past conflicted in terms of service delivery, human resources, and infrastructure.

“We need a leader who understands issues affecting the sector,” said the clinical officers’ representative.

Gibore, however, questioned the nominee’s knowledge of human resources and management, observing that the country should interrogate the process of appointing a CS.

He added, “The CS should be able to handle human resources competitively, which has been complex since devolved units”.

The complexity of human resources has seen various cadres move to the streets, demanding employment, promotions, payment of salaries, and health insurance.

According to information from the Kenya Practitioners and Dentist Council (KMDC), she is a registered internal medicine specialist despite not practising medicine in Kenya

KMPDC’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr David Kariuki, said Barasa had never been deregistered. There have been claims on social media platforms that she was deregistered in 2019.

“What happens in some cases is that when a doctor is not practising in a particular year (maybe they are out of the country or have taken up a job not involving direct patient care), they opt not to renew their licence for that period, and renew in the year they want to return to practice,” the CEO clarified.

Despite the position being political, John Nyangi, a health economist, says the nominee should work independently.

“CS (position) requires an individual who is strong in governance, rule-of-law, accountability, and consensus-oriented,” said Nyangi.

According to a profile shared by State House spokesperson, Hussein Mohamed, Dr Barasa is an infectious Disease Consultant at WHO.

She worked at the Mater Hospital as an Internal Medicine physician before joining WHO as a consultant.

In the profile published on X, Barasa is said to have over 15 years of field experience as a senior medical officer, with progression to an internal Medicine Physician and technical advisor, having worked in health institutions both national, referral, private, and community-based organisations.

“Co-led the infectious disease pillar addressing outbreak-prone infections such as respiratory infections (Covid-19, diphtheria), viral haemorrhagic fevers like Ebola and SVD), and contagious diarrhoea (cholera) among others,” read a section of her profile published by the State.

Barasa has a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Nairobi where she studied from 2001 to 2006.

Barasa returned to the University of Nairobi between 2012 and 2017 to pursue a Master of Medicine degree in Internal Medicine.

Currently, she is undertaking an MSC in infectious diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.