Bungoma County Director of Medical Services Dr. Caleb Watta has assured health workers that the current government will focus on lower level health facilities.
Speaking Wednesday while officially closing a 5-day training to frontier duty bearers on gender based violence at Hotel in Chwele Kabuchai constituency Bungoma County, Watta divulged that facilities that will be given priority include dispensaries and community health facilities.
He noted that the county government has already allocated funds to equip and improve infrastructure and staff the facilities in the county.
Watta added that according to a survey conducted by his department most residents in the county use the lower level facilities before being referred to Level 4 and 5 hospitals.
He noted that 80 per cent of residents visit the primary health care facilities on a fairly basis.
The County Director of Health also confirmed that there will be adequate supply of medicine, equipment and other requirements at the facilities.
Watta added that another area that he will emphasize on is welfare of health staff to improve service delivery. Welfare issues to prioritize will be include promotion, resignations and creation of a proper working environment.
The County Health Director also noted that there was need to involve the health workers on short training and refresher courses which enable them to manage emerging changes in the health sector.
On gender based violence, Watta lauded The Kenya Red Cross with the support of Ministry of foreign affairs Finland for having found it wise to train frontier duty bearers on how to manage gender based violence cases.
He noted that there is need to reduce cases of Gender based violence in Bungoma which is ranked third in the country on reported cases of gender based violence with Mt Elgon Sub county leading in Bungoma County with at least three cases reported per day and numerous cases going unreported.
Watta called upon the health care workers to report any case on gender based violence and told the organizers of the forum that there was need of capacity build other stakeholders on the same.
“The organizers of this training should escalate the same message to the whole western region so as to meet the presidential directive of ending gender based violence in 2026,”he said.
Watta noted that despite the fight against gender based violence there were challenges that need to be looked into such as lack adequate skills of handling victims.
The county health director also noted that there was a disconnect between the stakeholders hence there was need to bring all stakeholders on board to understand their roles and duties so that they can handle cases of gender based violence as a team.
He called upon health care workers who participated in the training to put into practice what they learned during the five-day session to reduce cases of gender based violence.
