he Kenya health sector has re-aligned its policy and strategic direction in line with the Kenya 2010 constitution, Kenya Health Policy and Kenya Health Sector Strategic Plan so as to achieve its long and medium term health sector strategic intents respectively.
The health workforce is one of seven policy orientations specified in the Kenya Health Policy. Specifically, it intends to ensure that there is adequate and equitable distribution of human resources for health. To achieve this, evidence based health workforce norms and standards for the different tiers/levels of healthcare have been revised building upon the previous 2006 Norms and Standard Guidelines. Norms and standards refer to the minimum and appropriate mix of human resources and infrastructure that is required to serve the expected populations at the different levels of the system with the defined health services.
To achieve this intent, the Kenya Health Sector Strategic and Investment Plan (KHSSP 2014 – 2017) has called for prioritization of a minimum number of health workers in each facility, based on expected services to be delivered as defined in the Kenya Essential package for Health (KEPH). A staffing norm has been defined for each level, to outline the minimum health workers, by cadre, needed to assure provision of the KEPH. During the period of the KHSSP, the sector efforts shall be geared towards assuring this minimum number of staff. Once this is assured, additional funds would be used to provide additional human resources to attain optimum norms that facilities and Counties will have elaborated.
In the past, the health sector based staffing requirements on fixed patterns of staff for different levels of care. The previous Norms and Standards (2006) brought these requirements into one document, and also introduced population ratios for critical staff. These two approaches have been quite useful in assessing overall staffing requirements at the National or County level, and so guiding HRH investments and planning.
These norms and standards are designed in a manner to maintain the advantages of the existing norms, while addressing their deficiencies. They are a guide to the required staff that different levels of the health sector need to work towards having, for effective delivery of standard and quality health services in the country. They will greatly assist in rationalizing and equitable distribution of the health workforce across the different tiers/levels of healthcare delivery in the country so that there is fairness and equity.
The sector has therefore developed these guidelines to help provide a rational framework to guide our investment in health sector inputs across the country, and to ensure equity in availability of investments needed for the delivery of services to the Kenyan population. They are a presentation of the expected inputs that are needed to ensure the efficient and effective delivery of defined health services at the different tiers/levels of the health system.
JAMES MACHARIA
CABINET SECRETARY HEALTH