Jayesh Saini: What Does Kenya's Health System Look Like?

In the early 1960s, Kenya attained independence, but health care has remained a right of the only few who can afford private hospitals or go for a treatment abroad.

Jayesh Saini, a Nairobi resident, said that many people who cannot afford private hospitals had to stay dependent on public hospitals. Here, those getting their treatment in the public hospitals had to experience multiple concerns.

A country like Kenya also had to cope with various diseases like Malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS, and measles; with adding, there are multiple other issues like corruption in the health division, ineffectual allotment of resources, and inadequate policies. All these factors make it almost inconceivable to sustain a quality health care system.

Jayesh Saini Clinix said, adding further to the conversation, there are persistent strikes by the health care sector, costly prescriptions, very few health practitioners to a vast population, and uneven distribution of health resources over the country. All these challenges have failed the health care system in Kenya.

Here, Jayesh Saini, Nairobi, asserted one more factor about the lack of affordable health insurance policies, because of which people in Kenya had to suffer the high hospitalized charges. In such situations, many have to rely on the goodwill of their relatives and friends when they get hospitalized.

Relying on close relatives and friends has been a usual situation in the country as the citizens had to go through improper management, expensive treatments and prescribed prescriptions. People find it troublesome to confront the irrational structure of the healthcare system.

In a situation like COVID-19, a disease that grew quicker and harmed the economy of the world, in such a situation, it could be painful to support others in clearing their health bills. Jayesh Saini in Kenya further talked about the consequence, a cost of treating a COVID-19 patient in June 2020 was around many thousand dollars, a health system that has been under-funded, less staffed, and filled with corruption can come apart if the pandemic leads to mass infections.

Adding to the report, Jayesh Saini, a Nairobi native said, the Kenyan health care system should not only focus on controlling the spread of Coronavirus but also must take specific steps to restructure the health sector. Such action could help Kenya hold off any severe threats from the present and future health crises. Certainly, many may have tried previously to improve the health sector. Still, there needs to be few more changes to get the entire healthcare system on the route.

Jayesh Saini News asserted that Kenya's healthcare system comprises various systems, including public, private, and faith-based or NGOs. Around 47% are public and serve under the Ministry of Health, 42% are in the private division, 9% are faith-based health services, and NGOs run 2%.

Further noting, Jayesh Saini, Nairobi said, Healthcare in public hospitals is available for free of cost for a few services, including maternity care, in-patient treatment, and those having national health insurance. Healthcare provided by private hospitals, faith-based associations, or NGOs comes at a cost, and charges will differ depending on the service you choose.

About 21% of Kenyans have health insurance like national health insurance, but this differs depending on a particular region. For details, Jayesh Saini stated that around 40% of citizens in Nairobi have health insurance, whereas below 2% might have insurance in other marginalized rural areas.

In the public health division, the 47 divisional governments administer service provision at the provincial level, whereas insurance policy and private referral hospitals are administered at the national level.

Considering the overall healthcare systems in Kenya, the major drawback is its imbalance conditions between the resources and the availability of care.

A nationwide study found that there is a significant shortage in chest specialists, hospitals, physicians, and emergency care nurses. An evaluation of health resources in 2018 also revealed that just 11% had the standard resources required to prevent infections, including gloves, infectious waste storage, and disinfectant.

Jayesh Saini, a Nairobi native, said, the hospitals that allow emergency breathing intervention services, around 77% provided oxygen, and about 22% had invasive mechanical ventilation. The availability of care and resources of the health system can be figured out by considering significant factors such as its regional area and the economic capacity of a region.

Jayesh Saini, adding further, said that there should be proper coordination between the government, private, and other faith-based associations or NGOs, which will have vitality in specialist care. Presently, we see coordination, but there are still few dependencies on other healthcare divisions, which varies much. There are many routine healthcare system activities that are not taking place or have been taken down, considering some aspect.

Jayesh Saini from Kenya said the health care system in Kenya is doing well at the moment. Still, there need to be few improvisations in the information-sharing division. People receive less to specific information on the current pandemic situation, whereas few more details will create more awareness among the people about the present pandemic situation.

For example, speaking to people about, how the virus had spread and what measures can we take to avoid the spread. Letting people know how effectively the healthcare system is functioning at all stages, like healthcare workers staying long in intensive care units, the efficiency of contact tracing teams, or the numbers of deaths in exposed areas. Such information is considerably required and should be shared among the people to make them aware, by which the virus spread could be controlled.