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Kenyatta National Hospital set to get disaster, bad debt fund
Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia at the Kenya Health and Leadership Congress, whose theme was "Transforming health care in our devolved system", at the Intercontinental Hotel on February 27, 2015. DIANA NGILA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- However, he said that the officials were yet to come up with the amount that would go into the special fund.
- Mr Macharia claimed that no much efforts have been put in place to secure the largest referral hospital in East and Central Africa.
The government is planning to set aside a special fund to enable Kenyatta National Hospital to handle disasters and bad debts, Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said Friday.
Speaking during a breakfast meeting between KNH and its sponsors, Mr Macharia said the health facility was strained as it handles security-related disasters from all over the country.
He said he has talked with other government officials to bolster KNH’s responsiveness to disasters and bills coming from defaulting patients.
“We agreed that KNH needs to be given a special fund to cater for disasters,” said the CS.
However, he said that the officials were yet to come up with the amount that would go into the special fund.
He said the hospital’s service delivery has improved over the years but emerging diseases in the region such as Ebola posed a challenge.
SPONSORSHIP
In the wake of terrorist attacks in the country, Mr Macharia claimed that not much effort had been put in place to secure the largest referral hospital in East and Central Africa.
“KNH is basically a lifeline in this nation (and) it needs to be guarded as a barracks,” he said, hinting at the need for collaboration between the State corporation and security agencies.
Speaking at the event, the hospital's CEO, Ms Lily Koros Tare, said 78 per cent of the patients seeking treatment at the hospital are unemployed, “and this translates to unpaid bills and financial constraints”.
Ms Tare commended the partners, saying that sponsorship from individuals, private companies and governments had enabled KNH to attend to 4,900 patients daily.
She said that in 2013 KNH performed 33 open-heart surgeries but in 2014 that number fell to 11 because an overseas sponsor supporting the program had pulled out.
The hospital plans to build a housing estate for staff that will include a shopping complex. It also plans to upgrade its medical equipment and modernize its infrastructure.
Those in attendance pledged to support KNH to realize its ambitions but challenged the hospital to work on the morale of nurses and doctors.
In addition to the financial intervention by the national government, Mr Macharia said devolving specialized health care to the counties would relieve KNH of its current burden.
“We need to enhance the capacity of county hospitals to decongest KNH,” said Rachel Gathoni, the head of the Kenya Commercial Bank Foundation.
