Fix staffing malaise for UHC to succeed

President William Ruto last week launched his administration’s universal health coverage (UHC) programme, promising access to affordable healthcare by all Kenyans.

The government appears to peg the success of UHC on putting up community healthy units to take services to the grassroots and establishing a Social Health Insurance Fund to enable households receive medical care without having to pay out of pocket.

The publicity blitz around the launch of the programme perhaps underlines just how much Dr Ruto wants it to succeed. But he would be well advised to hear the views of health workers whom the government will be counting on to deliver key services under UHC.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union, for instance, has warned that it will take massive investments in personnel, facilities and drugs for the ambitious programme to succeed.

Kenya has 13 doctors, nurses and midwives for every 10,000 people, which is below the World Health Organization (WHO)’s standard 23 for every 10,000 people.

Specialist medical personnel tend to prefer private to public health facilities due to poor working conditions in the latter.

The staffing malaise has manifested in frequent strikes by health workers undermining services in facilities run by county governments.

There is also a skewed distribution of in favour of towns and cities, leaving most rural areas severely underserved.

For UHC to succeed, the President and his administration will have to fix the staffing problem.