Medical equipment leasing improves service delivery

Richard Ngatia, chairman of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce, Nairobi Chapter.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has just launched the Universal Health Care programme, projected to significantly enhance medical care. After the piloting phase, focus will shift to the countrywide rollout and likely, how the private sector will plug in to actualise the programme. Overall costs involved would be huge, certainly, considering that the entire population of 45 million should benefit. Among the most practical solutions that would cut costs embracing is e-Health. This refers to using information and communication technologies all along the service delivery chain from observation to dispensing of drugs.

Creating a platform where medical personnel and patients can communicate virtually, say through a smartphone application is ideal. We could start by creating a database that holds user information for as many beneficiaries and medical personnel as possible for profiling. Such a database would also contain information about available healthcare facilities in various regions and respective specialisation. The idea is about enabling the patient to come online and make a request to be seen, possibly even selecting the doctor of choice among those available. In a way, we would have solved primary care challenges. With a well-functioning public health insurer, in this case the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), the billings would be done immediately and payments to the various players promptly processed.