Staffing shortage hamper delivery of health services in Baringo- report

A community scorecard on the status of health centres has revealed locals are not guaranteed health services due to shortage of staff.

The Centre for Enhancing Democracy and Good Governance noted that in other facilities patients are forced to travel between 15 and 20 kilometres to seek laboratory tests.

At Sirata Dispensary, for example, there is only one nurse thus services are stopped when the nurse is away on official or personal duties.

"Laboratory services are not available at Sirata, patients in need of lab tests are referred to Marigat, some 15 kilometres away," reads the report.

Ilng’arua health centre scorecard revealed lack of sanitation facilities. Staff and patients share a single toilet.

Gideon Toromo, the chief officer medical services in Baringo said while receiving the status report from the two facilities that Ilng’arua also lacks laboratory technicians.

The county health strategic plan 2018-2022 released in November 2019 revealed that human resource bottlenecks and lack of specialised facilities continue to stifle delivery of health services in the region.

With a total of 247 facilities and 58 community health units, the county has 1,210 staff in the health services department.

Of the 247, seven hospitals are Level Four facilities, 31 are health centres and 176 are dispensaries.

The distribution of staff indicates that there are nine specialists, 19 doctors, 535 nurses, and 113 clinical officers. The plan reveals that there is still a gap in the numbers and skills of staff in the county health sector.

“Baringo County Referral Hospital currently operates as Level Four and has specialised facilities for ICU, renal dialysis, diagnostics including CT scan, Histopathology, Biochemistry and Microbiology,” reads part of the strategic plan.