County’s Path to the Universal Healthcare
The Kitui Universal Health Coverage baptized as County Health Insurance Cover (KCHIC) was launched by Governor Charity Ngilu on August 21, 2018. It’s bold initiative and expensive one, looking at the number of people. The cover sought to offer affordable healthcare to an estimated 270,000 households making Kitui the second county after Makueni to offer her residents free healthcare in the country. Through the cover, residents paid an annual subscription fee of sh.1000 to benefit from numerous services offered through this program in the county’s 290 health facilities.
The programme has transformed the health sector in the county as residents are accessing high quality health services in all public health facilities without extra medical costs. KCHIC seeks to liberate Kitui residents from sickness and disease – thus leading the county towards realizing a healthy and productive society.
The Universal Healthcare Programme continues to reduce the disease burden among residents and seeks to eliminate the burden of hospital bills and also realize productivity among the county’s high population. Presently, 99,496 households have enrolled in the programme with an estimated 618,000 residents benefiting from the plan. The County leadership has ensured apt drug availability and other essentials in all health facilities since their demand increases with subsidized medical care.
The County Health Insurance Cover (KCHIC) came after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the county government and a national consortium of medics VIRION health limited that brings a pool of medical specialists to offer advanced medical consultancy and treatment in the county’s top facilities. The move is part of the continuous developments by the county government to better the sector and ensure quality healthcare services to all residents.
The county’s commitment to improve the sector was marked by increasing health personnel through sourcing 60 nurses from JHPIEGO and 27 doctors and 8 pharmacists from the national government a few months after Governor Ngilu took over the county’s mantle of leadership. Kitui also received a total of 103 health workers from APHIA PLUS KAMILI under sponsorship of USAID, and the Centre for Health Solutions and continues to hire professionals to improve the sector ranked high in the manifesto realization.
In July 2018, Governor Ngilu subsequently released 322 new health recruits into the workforce to serve in various health facilities in the county. The County health reforms have also seen more drugs distributed to hospitals and modernization of the hospital’s outpatient departments. The hospital received a total of 2,060,114 patients between August 2017 and March 2018 but with the introduction of the county insurance cover, the number has increased to 5,485,245 reaching a 116% increase in patient turn up at the top facility.
