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Kenya: Ministry Plans to Recruit More Health Workers
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Business Daily (Nairobi)
25 March 2008
Posted to the web 26 March 2008
Allan Odhiambo
Nairobi
The Health ministry plans to absorb 1,700 additional workers this year following increased budgetary allocation from the Treasury to be announced in the June.
According to estimates for the 2008/09 budget, the ministry plans to absorb into its permanent work force some 1,186 workers currently serving on contract and also bring on board an additional 520 interns at a cost of Sh660 million.
The recruitment is intended to improve service provision in the sector which has suffered from an exodus of key staff to better paying jobs overseas.
Lack of enough workers has been blamed for poor provision of health care services, with officials saying the sector has a shortfall of 6,000 nurses. But with the additional new workers, the sector's allocation for finance expenditures on personnel emoluments would be Sh13.6 billion in the coming financial year. Overall, Treasury proposes to give about Sh73 billion to the health sector to help improve on service delivery.
If realised, this target would help grow the country's expenditure per capita to $13.8, which is double the levels in 2004. The allocation is however still less than half the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation of $35 per capita.
"The additional resources coupled with targeting of investments to cost-effective interventions have enabled the ministry to reverse the health indicators which were on the decline," treasury said in a Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for the health sector.
The government said health services have improved in the past few years with the immunisation coverage now standing at 75 per cent while the HIV prevalence is pegged at 5.1 per cent with over 160,000 people on Anti Retroviral Therapy.
New treatments and intensification of indoor residue spraying has also helped in the fight against malaria, where a 20 per cent reduction in related admissions to hospitals has been noted.
The State expects that there will be further improvement of service delivery once the newly formed Health Sector Services Fund (HSSF) is operational. The fund's key objectives are to provide financial resources for medical supplies, rehabilitation and equipment of health facilities in the country.
It would also support capacity building in management of health facilities and empower rural communities to take charge of improving their own health.
The fund would also give grants to secretariats of faith-based health facilities to improve their product range and service delivery.
According to the Treasury about Sh3.3 billion is projected to be allocated to the new fund in the 2008/09 financial year with about Sh613 million of the total funding anticipated to be provided by development partners.
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"The success of the HSSF will be dependent of an effective supervision by the provincial health management teams (PHMTs) and district health management teams (DHMTs)," the report showed. These institutions were previously largely financed from cost sharing but the entry of HSSF would now mean that the ministry shall finance supervisory activities equitably from the centre at a cost of Sh372 million.
The government also proposes to allocate Sh100 million towards a special fund to help clear any waivers occassioned by patients who are unable to pay their bills.
Most parastatals providing healthcare services, are facing a major challenge of revenue collection due to poverty with official estimates showing that 25 per cent of patients admitted to these institutions are unable to pay and end up seeking waivers.
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