Ministry of Health convenes with task force to strengthen healthcare workforce

By Robert Mutasi

The Ministry of Health has recommitted to a comprehensive healthcare workforce after a strategic interface between the Principal Secretary for Public Health and Professional Standards, Mary Muthoni, and the Presidential Task Force on Human Resources for Health.

This meeting, held on Thursday, November 14,2024, aims at upgrading the planning, deployment, and management of healthcare workers in Kenya so that country health needs can be better met.

This report provides direction for health sector human resources planning, led by the HRH Task Force, under the leadership of Dr. Khama Rogo.

The identified legal, policy, administrative, and operational issues that obstruct efficiency and growth within the sector will be analyzed and addressed.

In this work, emphasis will be placed on an overarching goal: creating an effective and responsive workforce.

The meeting, among others, emphasized the following strategic areas: streamlining healthcare personnel management and developing policies that will be helpful in achieving optimum health delivery.

PS Muthoni said the government was irreversibly committed to ensuring the improvement of the workforce for health, adding that strengthening human resources is an essential ingredient in achieving UHC.

"Our pre-occupation is to ensure that we have a competent and well-deployed health workforce to attain the highest standards of health for all Kenyans," she assured.

Ms. Muthoni said such a resolution by the government was determined to confront head-on the challenges facing the workforce so that health practitioners can give nothing but the best care and services.

The Task Force has been accorded an important role in the development of policy: it is tasked with conducting an assessment and making recommendations on workforce gaps, ensuring adequate deployment of health practitioners.

It is the government's hope that such a framework shall go a long way toward realizing a long-term sustainable management of health personnel, particularly in rural and underserved areas.

She was accompanied to the meeting by the Director General for Health, Dr. Patrick Amoth, and other senior officials from the Ministry of Health.

Dr. Amoth said the findings and recommendations of the Task Force would go a long way in reforming the health workforce, noting that unless the efforts are well coordinated within the health sector, no such initiatives will have any success.

The Ministry of Health is expected to update the country regularly on the progress of work by the Task Force, as they formulate actionable strategies to resolve the HRH issues.

This marks a commitment and a positive shift in addressing the needs of Kenya's healthcare workforce, a promise of better service delivery for all Kenyans.

Through these selective reforms, the Ministry aspires to end some of the nagging human resource challenges and ensure increased access to health services across the country.