Facility Clusters To Improve Healthcare Delivery
Delivery of health services in Laikipia is set to move a notch higher with the creation of referral clusters under a new health strategy by the county government.
The Department of Health and Medical Services is in the process of pooling all the 84 health facilities into 15 clusters.
Each cluster will have all the services a patient needs which will solve the hustles of long journeys to the two main referral hospitals.
Under these clusters, facilities are classified according to their proximity to each other.
The focus is the strength of each facility that can be used to the advantage of the other health facilities under that particular cluster.
They are: Nanyuki, Kalalu, Chumvi, Doldol, Lamuria, Wiyumiririe, Kimanjo, Rumuruti, OlMoran, Salama, Nyahururu, Oljabet, Ng'arua, Ndindika, and Sipili.
The clusters are meant to make health service delivery seamless, and efficient in that if a patient visits their nearest facility, and requires laboratory services which are not offered, their specimen is taken, and sent to the nearest facility that has laboratory services.
The sample referrals make the patient have their lab results in any facility that they visit, even if the facility does not provide such services. It does not only save on the patient's time but also the cost of transport to the other facility.
Drug shortages will be a thing of the past as under every cluster, facilities can pool together drugs that are available and needed within the locality.
The use of clusters has also made it possible to identify the common morbidities - common diseases that affect a given area. The information is crucial as it guides the investment of required resources to respond to the disease burden in an area.
The 15 clusters formed from all the 84 public health facilities within the county form the basic referral units for the facilities under them.
The clusters formation is part of an extensive journey that the Health Department in Laikipia county has embarked on and is taking shape every day.
(Published by ICT | Source: Laikipia Weekly Bulletin Issue 0060).
