The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) conducted a research to determine the extent to which the right to health had been realized in Kisumu. The research that was conducted in 2017 focused on four key issues, namely: accessibility, availability, acceptability and quality of health services. Kisumu County rolled out the pilot phase Universal Health Care in August 2018.
Kisumu Countyx was not singled out as a special case but as a case study – which means that the results of the research should be valid for other counties as well.
This document is useful because it health journalists to compare the findings of the research and compare if there has been any change since the introduction of UHC.
Journalists can also investigate if the county government followed the recommendations that were proposed by KNCHR.
Findings
(a) Health facilities are ill-equipped. The current infrastructure cannot support the growing population
(b) Human resource is inadequate with low personnel to patient ratio resulting to compromised services
(c) Health facilities are usually understaffed, ill equipped and offer limited services including emergency services.
(d) Quality is compromised where necessary machines are unavailable. This results in misdiagnosis
(e) Health service is unaffordable to the very poor. Therefore they only seek medical interventions when in critical condition and don’t care about prevention.
(f) The County hospitals are physically not accessible to a majority of the residents. Residents have to travel far to access health services.
Recommendations to the County
In order to solve the problems mentioned above, the report had the following recommendations to the County Government of Kisumu:
(a) Enhance accessibility and quality of health services by adequately staffing and equipping health facilities in the County.
(b) Equip a ward for patients suffering from mental illness (mental ward) with staff, drugs, equipment and facilities to ensure that the treatment of the mentally ill patients is acceptable.
(c) Invest in infrastructure especially by constructing more medical laboratories, maternity wards, theatres, waiting bays, and staff quarters in the facilities highlighted in this report.
(d) Employ more medical practitioners in order to improve the staff: patient ratio
(e) Ensure consistent supply of drugs especially in Kisumu Central Subcounty.
(f) Prioritize and increase budgetary allocation for health functions.
Recommendations to the National Government
The report also recommends that the national government should increase funding to County Governments for improvement of the health infrastructure.
Click on the link to download the whole document http://www.knchr.org/Portals/0/OccasionalReports/The%20Right%20to%20Health%20in%20Kisumu%20County.pdf?ver=2018-01-18-142546-863 or download it on our site: The_Right-to-Health_in_Kisumu_County
