County Government of Laikipia

Lower level facilities in Laikipia will now be referring lab specimens - instead of patients - to other facilities that have a capacity of testing them.

The county's UHC model is based on strengthening the primary level facilities and well-defined referral clusters.

The sample referral involves empowering health facilities in rural areas to take a sample from a patient, sending it to a facility with a laboratory service for testing instead of referring the patient.

For a long time, health facilities have been referring patients from dispensaries that have no laboratory to health centers that have lab services to receive treatment.

This has led to many patients incurring additional costs of traveling to other hospitals. In a move that is set to revolutionize the health services in the county, a patient will have their sample taken, transported to the lab, tested, and results sent back within a few hours, which will enable health providers to know what the the patient is ailing from.

Even if the health center does not have a laboratory, the county government will take the responsibility of transporting these samples in order to save cost on patients and ensure health service is affordable. Health CECM Rose Maitai said.

The systems will enable all health centers in the county to work together as a unit to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) to all citizens. This is in a manner that is affordable, equitable, and accessible to all.

We want to maximize services offered at health centers to ensure that even those in the interior of the county can access the same service offered at our referral hospital, NTRH and NCRH. the CECM said.

This will be achieved by decentralizing services and ensuring specialized doctors visit rural health centers regularly.

The health officers in all facilities in the county will receive training and capacity building to ensure they can take required samples from patients. This was agreed upon after two days of consultative meetings with managers of the 84 health facilities in the county on the best strategies for improving health delivery.

The meeting also offered a chance to collate feedback from citizens after two weeks of engagement with citizens at health facilities. During two community engagements at NTRH and NCRH, citizens were able to air their views on the operation of health services they receive. Also, in NHIF biometric registration exercise, County health officials interacted with citizens to give their opinions on the same issue.

The meeting of Health managers sought to ensure adoption and incorporation of citizens' views in strategic planning of health services. Among the issues adopted was the implementation of sample referral and business plans for all health centers.

I am happy with the way health officers in charge are embracing these initiatives that are set to improve health for our people and also make facilities self-sustaining. Ms. Maitai added.

Governor Ndiritu Muriithi said his administration plans to deepen and extend the provision of health services to meet UHC's goal through sustainable health financing.

(Published by ICT | Source: Laikipia Weekly Bulletin Issue: 0058)