City Hall begins Kemsa debt audit, hopes for steady drugs supply

City Hall has begun auditing its debt to the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) with the hope for a resolution that will end lack of drugs at county facilities.

Acting Health executive Charles Kerich said a team of county government auditors will submit its report in two weeks, on the debt of about Sh285 million.

SUPPLY

Delays in settlement of the debt and the resultant refusal by the state agency to supply drugs have been blamed for deteriorating medical services in the city.

Some county hospitals went days without medicine, with poor patients forced to turn to private facilities as Kemsa cut supply mid last year.

Mr Kerich said the organisation restored supply and that drugs worth Sh120 million were delivered in October.

“We recently paid them Sh25 million in addition to the Sh58 million paid in August," he also said, before the Health Services committee on Tuesday.

“We have tasked our own auditors with looking into the debt and saying exactly how much it is. After that, we will know [what to do next]."

CHALLENGES

Mr Kerich cited understaffing and pressure, due to poor staff to patient ratios, as hospitals' main challenges.

Nairobi needs more than 1,736 new employees in different cadres to achieve optimal staff levels, he said, adding the county has only 3,464 health workers yet the requirement is 5,200. Some 253 retired.

“The county urgently needs the positions filled so the Public Service Board made advertisements. We could make a case on why we need to hire even more. Shortlisting is currently going on but the process will have very little impact as we still need more,” he said.

On Tuesday, members of county assembly asked Mr Kerich to explain deteriorating health services in the capital. Health Services committee chair Peter Warutere said the service delivery was in a "sickbed and in need of urgent intervention to be resuscitated".

Mr Warutere accused the executive of hiring inefficient staff, with most serving in acting capacity and others not reporting to work, "a disservice to Nairobi residents".

“The department is in the intensive care unit and we need to get it out. Why are inefficient people given opportunities to lead the department? How I wish competence would be the yardstick going forward,” he said.

UPGRADES

To cure congestion, Mr Kerich said Governor Mike Sonko's administration is mulling upgrading 79 satellite health centres to fully-fledged hospitals.

He noted that City Hall already asked heath centres to determine what needs to be done and the amount of money needed to upgrade the facilities.

Mr Kerich said Nairobi will also upgrade six high volume health centres and four comprehensive primary health care centres to hospitals this financial year.

This is besides the planned upgrade of Mbagathi and Mama Lucy Hospitals to decongest Kenyatta National Hospital.

“We have started a needs assessment of all the satellite health centres in Nairobi. Once this is done, we will know what needs to be done and the budget. This will ease congestion in the four county hospitals and improve service delivery," he said.