Nairobi — The Embu County Government Governor, Cecily Mbarire, has welcomed a payment plan option provided by the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) geared at regularising the settlement of outstanding bills by county governments.
The plan, Governor Mbarire said, fits well with the County's plan to transform and prioritise quality health services provision as one of its delivery focus areas in all the four sub-counties.
Speaking today, when she paid a courtesy call to KEMSA CEO Terry Ramadhani at the Authority's head offices, Governor Mbarire highlighted the need to maintain mutually beneficial public sector partnerships with specialist organisations to boost service delivery.
As part of the prioritisation of the health services provision, Embu County will also seek to regularise its account with KEMSA to guarantee the availability of quality medicines and other health commodities in its public health facilities.
The County, she said, will rely on KEMSA to supply essential medicines and related commodities and called on the Authority to ensure high-quality service provision, including faster order turnaround times and competitive pricing.
"In Embu County, we do not intend to reinvent the wheel as far as health commodities supply chain concerned. We shall work closely with KEMSA, who have the relevant last mile delivery expertise and infrastructure to ensure efficient service delivery," Mbarire said. She added, "In this partnership endeavour with the Authority, we also commit to clear the pending bills owed to KEMSA in coming months."
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On her part, Ramadhani reiterated that the Authority had formulated plans to enhance the customer experience standards for all counties by ensuring faster order turnaround times under the KEMSA 2.0 strategy. She updated Embu Governor Mbarire that Authority is executing the rapid results strategy to raise operating efficiencies and customer satisfaction.
The KEMSA 2.0 strategy, she said, focuses on building momentum for organisational productivity; to guarantee efficient last mile delivery of health commodities countrywide.
"Guided by the provisions of the KEMSA 2.0 strategy, the Authority is prioritising service provision for County governments as a key client segment. Indeed, County Governments at KEMSA are enjoying a red carpet level of services, and we are sparing no effort to ensure that we meet their last mile medical supplies needs as best as we can," Ramadhani assured.
In recent months the Authority has collected more than Kshs 2.7 billion overdue pending bills owed by County governments through a stakeholder engagement-focused credit management strategy. Under the new KEMSA Credit management strategy, the Authority has set a target to collect at least Kshs 500 million monthly in outstanding dues from county governments that have committed to regularising their accounts.
