Counties have been allowed to continue using leased medical equipment despite the lapse of contract, Health PS Peter Tum has said.
Tum said on Tuesday the machines under the Medical Equipment Services (MES) programme still remain in various hospitals across the country despite the lapse of the contracts.
He said the Ministry has put in place mechanisms to ensure use of the equipment is paid for.
“We want to assure the country that the services will continue being offered by the same equipment under MES. The contracts lapsed but we still have the same equipment in our hospitals; nobody intends to remove them,” he said.
“What we are currently discussing is how we will continue to ensure that these equipment remaining in those hospitals and are not obsolete will continue to offer those services and continue serving wananchi in those respective counties,” he added.
This comes even as Senate Speaker Amason Kingi last week approved fresh inquiry into the MES programme.
In the fresh probe, which has been pushed by Nominated Senator Hamida Kibwana, the Senate’s Health committee will inquire into the status of the programme.
The cost of the project has been at the centre of the controversy.
In a statement on the floor of the House, the senator wants the Health Committee to detail the terms of the contract the government signed on behalf of counties, stating the amount agreed upon and the amount paid since inception of project.
Senators also want the committee to state the number of equipment delivered and installed in each of the counties and disclose whether the project was tendered, stating who bid and who won the bid, the cost of the award and further disclose the contracts each county signed.
“This is one of the most controversial programmes in the history of healthcare in this country,” Narok Senator Ledama Olekina said.
According to Olekina, the medical equipment delivered to parts of Isiolo and Samburu are yet to be put to use due to lack of the required three-phase powered supply.
MES involved leasing of assorted medical equipment by the State for use in select national and county governments hospitals.
Many governors said the contract was vague and shoved down their throats.
The contract for the project was signed in 2015 for a period of seven years and expired last December.