Baringo Governor Benjamin Cheboi has pledged to enhance the health services in all hospitals by improving service delivery through availing drugs and motivating health care workers.
Cheboi who spoke to KNA at his Kabarnet office on Monday said the health care services in the county needed thorough improvements as the conditions were worrying since doctors, nurses and other workers in all cadres were demotivated as they lacked essential supplies to treat patients while some machines including the CT scan machine, were out of order and needed urgent repair.
He stressed that his first agenda will be to make sure there is a constant supply of drugs from KEMSA to the county hospitals and motivate healthcare workers through promotions and training and also lauded the workers for their effort despite the challenges.
“As a government, our main concern is having healthy people to ensure they are productive in their various works hence improve livelihoods, therefore, it is important to avail affordable drugs to residents,” Cheboi said.
Cheboi further assured residents that his administration would work closely with the national government and partners including non-governmental organizations to improve health in the county and also ensure more residents enroll for National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to reduce cost of healthcare.
The county boss said availability of clean water would be top priority because it was a major contributor to ill health, hence he would spearhead availability of clean water to reduce the time spent looking for the essential commodity and use the time for economic activities.
Cheboi reiterated his plans to upgrade Eldama Ravine sub-county hospital to a Level-5 to ensure adequate bed capacity and avoid referrals to the nearby counties of Nakuru and Uasin Gishu.
“We are looking to improve county revenue streams through an automated revenue collection system for transparency and accountability in the hospital since we cannot function without funds,’ he said.
The governor said he would install a robust ICT system to manage drugs, essentials and patients to ensure transparency and proper resource utilization.
