Bill seeks to give health volunteers medical insurance

Community health volunteers in Nairobi County will receive a medical cover and undergo training if a Bill currently before the county assembly is passed.

The Nairobi City County Health Services Bill that is being debated also seeks to certify the health workers and further rationalise their operations.

Zimmerman MCA Pius Mbono, the sponsor of the motion, said the Bill would ensure health workers are recognised as county staff and registered in a bid to improve their welfare.

“The Nairobi county government through its executive should, therefore, implement programmes to train and certify the volunteers using an approved curriculum,” reads the Bill in part.

City Hall will also be required to pay the volunteer workers a stipend as well as contributions towards their National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) cover. This will, however, be subject to the volunteers attaining at least 80 per cent of the performance target.

There are about 6,250 community health workers in Nairobi who work across the more than 1,000 health centres in the capital.

Their roles include tracing and referral of health-related cases to the nearest health facilities, home visits to determine health situation, promoting appropriate home-based care for the sick with the support of health partners and mobilising community members to adopt health promotion practices.

They also organise, mobilise and lead community health activities, maintaining household registers and keeping records of community health related events; conducting community disease surveillance and response as well as enrolling households towards achieving universal health coverage.

“The national government previously used to train the volunteers but since health was devolved, the relationship of the volunteers with the county has deteriorated and they have been working in deplorable conditions without protective gear,” stated Mbono.

The Bill also seeks to introduce community health units within the county to ensure effective delivery of health services to residents.

“Each person in the county has a right to access basic healthcare. The health units through their volunteers will also be able to give reports to alert the county in time in case of an outbreak to prevent further spread of a disease,” said the MCA.

In July, City Hall announced that community health volunteers would receive Sh3,000 monthly stipend.