Wanga expresses concern over maintenance of medical equipment

Homa Bay Friday June 9, 2023

KNA by Davis Langat

Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga has asked the national government to resolve issues on maintenance of medical equipment given to the counties in 2015.

Ms Wanga said the county governments were at crossroads after a contract between the provider of the medical equipment and the national government expired without proper communication on the way forward.

She said county governments were ill equipped to repair the equipment in case of breakdowns.

“The contract between the equipment provider and the government expired. This makes counties unable to repair the equipment,” Wanga said.

The Governor who made the remarks today when she met community health volunteers in Kasipul and Kabondo Kasipul constituencies urged the national government to intervene and salvage the situation.

The situation has made residents of some counties unable to access medical services using the equipment because they had broken down.

Wanga who the Vice Chairperson of council of governors (CoG) finance committee explained that resolving the issues surrounding the equipment will enhance service delivery using the equipment.

“Today, I have a dialysis machine at Homa Bay County Referral Hospital. But whenever the equipment becomes faulty, we cannot repair because of the issues we are talking about,” Wanga said.

“We appeal to the national government to resolve this matter so that counties can use the equipment for efficient delivery of health services,” she said.

The Governor said her administration was considering recruiting more health workers in the county. She said the number of patients has doubled in health facilities of the county in the last few months, a situation that requires additional workforce.

“I have visited health facilities in all our sub-counties since last week and realized the number of patients has doubled. The remedy is to start planning on how to recruit more health workers,” said Wanga.

She said her administration is committed to increasing NHIF enrolment from the current 19 per cent to 65 per as a way of enhancing universal health coverage.

“We have enrolled all our 2954 community health volunteers in the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) free of charge and we are remitting their contributions monthly. I encourage every Homa Bay resident to register for NHIF as this will enable them to acquire health services efficiently,” Wanga said

Courtesy ; K. N. A