#Daily nation newspaper co ke for free
#Daily nation newspaper co ke free

In Kisumu County, health workers have been overwhelmed by patient numbers. By May 2019, supplies of medicines and provision of some laboratory services were dwindling, forcing patients to use private pharmacies and laboratories if they could afford them.

#Daily nation newspaper co ke free

While patients received free health care, they faced long waiting times for consultations, laboratory tests, radiology services and operations. The delivery of medicines through the parastatal Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) initially began well, but laboratory services quickly became handicapped by problems in supply chains of reagents.

#Daily nation newspaper co ke for free

Although they generally agreed that UHC is a вЂњgood thingвЂќ, as one of our informants told us, вЂњbefore, people could not afford health care and were just suffering at homeвЂќ, these civil servants were given little time to make preparations for the huge increase in patients coming for free healthcare at public facilities when user fees were removed in December 2018. Given the governmentВґs earlier emphasis on a health insurance model of financial protection for UHC, the announcement of UHC as being вЂњfree health careвЂќ вЂ“ effectively the provision of free health care at the point of contact вЂ“ in government health facilities, came as somewhat of a surprise to the local government officials tasked with implementing UHC. Reference to health insurance was left out of this model, despite efforts to extend health insurance coverage and a raft of policy documents (3, 4, 5).

It is perhaps for this reason that President Uhuru announced the UHC pilot as constituting вЂњfree health careвЂќ through the possession of a вЂњUHC cardвЂќ.

However, accusations of corruption, which emerged in 2018, raised questions about public trust in this institution. Meanwhile the national government had set up a technical expert working group to assess the feasibility of an insurance model based on the already-existing national health insurance scheme (the National Hospital Insurance Fund, NHIF). Since there is, as yet, no official national policy document on UHC, the вЂњjourney towards UHCвЂќ, as it is described, is intentionally constituted as a realm of experimentation.Д«efore the launch of the pilot UHC project, many of KenyaвЂ™s counties had been experimenting with various health insurance models for extending financial and social protection to the poor and vulnerable. According to media coverage, the UHC initiative is вЂњexpected to herald the transformation of the countryВґs health sector, which is marred by poverty and lack of medical insuranceвЂќ (2). The extension of universal health coverage to the entire country by 2022 forms the ambitious second phase of the program. This pilot phase will вЂњprovide lessonsвЂќ to be used in scaling up UHC in the remaining counties. The first, вЂњpilotвЂќ, phase, provides access to free health services across public health facilities in four of KenyaВґs 47 counties: Kisumu, Machakos, Nyeri and Isiolo. Rolling out UHC in Kenya is to be achieved through two phases. The UHC initiative is part of the PresidentВґs вЂњBig Four AgendaвЂќ. On 13 th December 2018, he launched the universal health coverage вЂњpilotвЂќ project, dubbed Afya Care вЂ“ Wema Wa Mkenya, stating (1), вЂњStarting now, all Kenyan residents in the four counties with a UHC or the Afya Care card will have access to free health services across public health facilities.вЂќ In December 2018, KenyaВґs president, Uhuru Kenyatta, announced plans to вЂњpilotвЂќ UHC in 4 of the countryВґs 47 counties, by making health care free in all government health facilities for a period of one year. This move offers our research team a chance to follow developments, engagements and debates about UHC in Kenya, as they unfold. Kenya has recently made high-profile political commitments to achieving universal health coverage (UHC) nation-wide by 2022. This move offers our research team a chance to follow developments, engagements and debates about UHC in Kenya, as they unfold.Д¬ynthia Khamala Wangamati and Ruth Prince, October 2019 UHC cards waiting for collection in rural health center, Kenya