Kakamega county eyes Sh100 million revenue from hospitals

According to the Ministry of Health, the referral hospital has the potential to collect at least Sh100 million per month but it has been collecting between Sh20 million and Sh30 million only.

The County Health Executive Bernard Wesonga said the hospital is now collecting an average of Sh60 million per month after a raft of measures were put in place.

"We have been collecting revenue of below Sh50 million but the figure has grown to Sh60 million per month after we employed efficiency measures. Our target is to collect Sh100 milion," he said.

Dr Wesonga cited actualisation of the Health Facility Improvement Fund, a legislation that allows hospitals to collect and utilise their own revenue, as one of the measures that ensured increased revenue collection.

"We used to send funds collected to the Ministry of Finance before the health department would be given a fraction of it. This way, most of the monies from the hospitals used to finance other projects under other ministries," he said.

"We are today able to budget for ourselves, purchase drugs and other medical equipment on time and that makes our health facilities especially our referral hospital run efficiently and collect more funds," he added.

The County Health Executive said the department also employed county administrators and undercover people who regularly visit public hospitals, especially in places where payment is made.

Wesonga explained that the administrators are tasked to see whether the facilities have supplies, patients are being served and the operations of health workers.

"When you have drugs and working equipment those are the main things that attract clients," he said.

He said they have also automated the payment systems which also monitor the usage of drugs.

The department has established a committee to advise the ministry on revenue collection.

Wesonga revealed that the county plans to purchase medical equipment for critical units like theatres, laboratories, Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and X-ray after the national government ended the contract to service the equipment it purchased on behalf of county governments under the Medical Equipment Services (MES) scheme.

"We are going to procure our own medical equipment and have the manufacturer service them," he said.

He announced that they have come up with an amenity ward that seeks to help the ministry collect more revenue by targeting executive members and senior government officials.

"We have already built the wards and what is remaining is equipping them. The wing will offer high-end services that will also attract additional service charges," he said.