Murang'a to establish Health Fund to boost services

Murang’a County government plans to establish a Health Services Fund that will help improve the quality of health services in the county.

The Fund will be charged with the responsibility of providing health insurance, maternal health services and community health services.

This follows the adoption of Murang’a County Health Services Fund Regulations on which the fund will be adopted.

The Fund will ensure health facilities have better access to financial resources and ensure they are more responsive to medical and public health emergencies.

Murang’a county is prone to waterborne diseases such as cholera that have in the past seen countless lives lost while hundreds have been treated in various parts of the county due to water shortages and transmissions from nearby counties.

The county government has, however, embarked on an ambitious plan to raise water connections from the current 65 per cent to more than 90 percent at a cost of Sh350 million.

The Fund will also be charged with the role of ensuring a certain percentage of money is set aside for disbursement and equitably allocated for primary services.

It will also establish a centralised fund into which all revenues collected in regard to the regulations will be paid and administered.

The Fund’s board’s chairperson will be appointed by the governor and will not be a public officer.

Members of the board will include chief officers responsible for health services or their representatives nominated in writing by the County Executive Committee Member for Health.

They will also include the Chief Officer responsible for Finance, the county director of health services and a fund administrator who will be appointed for a specific period from the existing county staff by the Finance CECM who will act as the secretary to the board.

Others will include the chairperson of Murang’a Level Five hospital’s board, chairpersons of two-level four hospitals, a representative of level two and three hospitals and a member appointed by the governor.

“The chairperson of the fund will hold office for a term of three years and may be eligible for re-appointment for one other final term,” the regulations read.

Members of the board will hold office on a rotational basis for a term of three years as determined by the Health CECM.

The board will help mobilise resources for the Fund while providing oversight over the administration of funds drawn from it.

It will also approve expenditure plans and receive financial reports from hospital management boards and committees for consideration and adoption.

The board will also conduct periodic remittance of monies and accounting procedures to health facilities and will meet at least four times and a maximum of eight times annually.

In January this year, the county administration initiated the Kang’ata Care programme that provides more than 20,000 needy homesteads with free NHIF cover.

It then started issuing Sh4,000 stipends to expectant mothers to help them access ante-natal care and deliver in hospitals.

A report released in May this year by the National Council for Population and Development indicated that about 27 percent of Murang’a families struggle to access health facilities.

Another 63 per cent, the report said, has no access to health insurance.