Nairobi — The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) is engaging county governments to consider ringfencing health budgets and integrating information technology solutions to facilitate operating efficiencies and prompt payments for health commodities supplied by the Authority.
Speaking when she made the Authority's submission to the Nairobi City County Health Reforms Taskforce, KEMSA CEO Terry Ramadhani decried the prompt settlement challenges for supplies delivered to various county governments due to a lack of dedicated budget lines.
She regretted that such delays had negatively impacted service provision by KEMSA, affecting operational efficiency. The task force members who visited KEMSA offices led by Dr Anastasia Nyalita were updated that ringfencing revenues generated by health facilities will minimise the use of such funds for development and other recurrent expenditures at the expense of supplier payments.
Currently, Ramadhani disclosed that KEMSA is owed an average of Kshs 2.1 billion overdue accounts by several counties. However, many counties are beginning to service their accounts, including Nairobi County.
"At KEMSA, we have adopted a collaborative approach to unlocking the settlement of these outstanding debts. We believe Counties can better manage their financial obligations by ringfencing health revenues generated by their health facilities to guarantee payments for service providers such as KEMSA," Ramadhani proposed. She added, "County governments can only be described as KEMSA's priority or prestige clients, and we are sparing no effort to ensure that we meet their last mile medical supplies needs as best as we can."
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As part of the KEMSA reform journey- through a detailed operating and reform plan dubbed the KEMSA 2.0 strategy - the Authority, she said, is working closely with County Governments to integrate technology solutions that can accelerate efficient service delivery. The Authority has continued to enhance the automation of its systems through technology solutions to ease the process of order placement, confirmation and distribution of medical supplies.
Systems integration between KEMSA and County Governments will facilitate end-to-end visibility of inventories across the health commodities value chain.
"These systems include the Logistics Management Information System (LMIS), the Ministry of Health Kenya Health Information System (KHIS), and the KEMSA Electronic Proof of Deliveries (e-POD App). These technology systems will facilitate better information visibility across the supply chain system and contribute to inventory accuracy at the National and County operating levels," Ramadhani told the Taskforce members.
