The Ministry of Health has started assessing the impact of the community health promoters programme on communities.
Public Health and Professional Standards PS Mary Muthoni said CHPs play a crucial role in the community's healthcare referral system.
She said CHPs handle minor health issues such as first aid, blood pressure and blood sugar monitoring, child health checks and antenatal care reminders to pregnant mothers.
"These community health promoters are key in our society because their main operations involve minor but essential healthcare tasks. We have seen a significant impact," Muthoni said.
She spoke during assessment of CHPs in Kaloleni, Kilifi county, on Saturday.
Kilifi has 3,650 community health promoters. They have registered 177,000 households on the electronic community health information system (ICHIS). Kilifi has 294,000 households.
"ICHIS is part of the Digital Health Act, 2023, in terms of digitising our systems. The information we get from the ground helps us to make clear decisions in terms of how commodities are going to be distributed, how we are going to allocate funds in different counties and guide our normal operations," Muthoni said.
She said the system does not only help the CHPs in data collection but it also helps them make better policies at national level and cascade them to the counties.
"We don't have a patient for the county and a patient for the national government. Our role is to offer accessible and affordable quality healthcare for everybody," Muthoni said.
Out of the 177,000 households registered on ICHIS, 90,000 have been revisited by the CHPs to check on the progress of patients whom they referred to health facilities.
The PS said 111,000 people have been screened for diabetes in Kilifi out of which, 1,290 have been referred for further assessment in health facilities.
The number of people screened for hypertension is 72,000, with 2,840 referrals to health facilities.
Pregnant women screened in the county are 3,970, with 1,490 linked to hospitals for antenatal services.
"We are very keen on children under five years, because they are prone to ailments like common cold and malnutrition. Some 111,000 children have been assessed in Kilifi county," Muthoni said.
The PS said the county has high malaria prevalence and the government has distributed one million long-lasting insecticide-treated nets.
The CHPs also focus on hygiene, health education, HIV, teenage pregnancy and substance abuse.
"After having the opportunity to visit and learn what the CHPs do on the ground, I am more than excited and convinced the impact is real and the sustainability is there," she said.
Muthoni said, however, the CHPs are grappling with challenges, including the long distances they walk to reach patients.
"We are already discussing how the CHPs can be moving from one place to the other swiftly," she said.
There are 107,000 community health promoters across the country.
Kilifi health executive Peter Mwarogo said efforts are underway to enhance healthcare accessibility through the Primary Care Network, bringing multidisciplinary teams closer to communities and reducing the need for long-distance referrals.
"We have more than 150 health facilities scattered across the county but we still have some communities facing challenges of distance," he said.
