Kenya has taken huge steps forward on the road towards Universal Health Care (UHC) with President Uhuru Kenyatta signing the national UHC charter in Kisumu recently.
With the signing of this charter, Kenya positions itself as a leader in the UHC strategy that was adopted internationally as one of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.
With a target of 2022, a very ambitious commitment for delivery of the same has been made and we congratulate the government of Kenya for this drive towards inclusive healthcare for all.
While the celebrations on December 13, 2018, took place in Kisumu – a county PharmAccess has a close working relationship with – let’s take stock of the remarkable energy, drive, and commitment, of all partners that has brought us to this moment.
Ultimately, we are all striving towards the same goal: affordable, accessible and quality healthcare for every Kenyan. That is the vision. To follow through on this and make UHC an achievable reality, continued co-operation is required.
For its part, PharmAccess, together with its partner CarePay, Kenya has been cooperating with three of the pilot counties – Kisumu, Nyeri, Machakos as well as Kakamega and Kirinyaga – to help foster, develop, and implement a county embedded model for Universal Health Care comprising the dual pillars of cover and care.
Our technical partnership with Kisumu has helped facilitate ‘registrations in the county – totaling 240,000 people, using the M-Tiba registration application. This is an example of the remarkable utilisation of technology in the field to achieve more equitable health access.
These registration activities are part of a broader partnership with Kisumu which continues in 2019 to support their UHC implementation through amongst others helping with quality standards and regulation, data analysis on the scale, scope, quality and utilization of care and financial strategy.
Over the last number of years, we have been working with hundreds of facilities to improve the quality of patient care – such an important part of the UHC environment.
Credit Fund
We have provided millions in affordable financing through the Medical Credit Fund to support the quality of healthcare investment to more than 400 healthcare facilities.
Beyond the right of every individual and family to have financial protection in times of ill-health, there are broader systematic issues of trust and solidarity in the health system.
We must instill a willingness to collectively pay for each other and further integrate the important role of the private sector and quality standards.
As we move forward on the road to UHC, international cooperation will further bolster the countries’ efforts, with cross-country knowledge sharing and the commitment to maintain equity, non-discrimination, and a rights-based approach.
In this, our hope as an organization is to align firmly to the goals of UHC, given such a ringing endorsement in Kisumu this week.
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-The writer is the country director, PharmAccess Kenya
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