Ministry of Health
The Ministry of Health commissioned a consultant to provide financial advisory services for the Managed Equipment Services ( MES ) to be carried out in all counties in Kenya .
Q3 . So far how has the leasing of new medical equipment improved provision of health services in public hospitals ?
The MES Project will ensure that every county has at least a Level 5 and Level 4 Hospital . A total of 75 hospitals spread across the country are already fully equipped out of the 98 hospitals that will benefit from this project . MES project has greatly improved delivery of health care in this country .
The equipped hospitals are now able to handle both basic as well as specialized surgeries in more than 87 public hospitals thereby reducing the need for referrals . The establishment of life saving dialysis services in counties to cater for more than 10,000 Kenyans with kidney failure is a major achievement towards improving the quality of lives of Kenyans in need of dialysis services . These patients are now accessing the service from their county referral hospitals . Today , 39 renal centres have been completed and we are training required personnel to ensure that they are all operational by the end of the year .
Communicable diseases , rise in non-communicable diseases and injuries has led to increased demand for critical care services . Through the MES Project there will be additional 66 Intensive Care Beds ( ICU ) and 33 High Dependency Beds
( HDU ) to ensure that we have centres that provide services and personnel that ensure optimal care to the critically ill patients . Already , 6 ICU centres with a combined bed capacity of 54 beds have been completed and 4 are providing these vital services .
The latest digital mammography units screening have already been installed in 50 hospitals , thereby enabling the hospitals to carry out these critical exams at county level . This , together with the installation of state of the art digital x-ray , ultrasound and other imaging equipment will optimize the use of digital technology to allow for faster diagnosis and scan analysis using interconnected expertise in 98 hospitals . This implies that for instance , one radiologist can assist with interpreting images in different stations across the country in the absence of such specialists .
The MES Project uptake has been tremendous in areas where the equipment has been installed .
Q4 . Since you launched this initiative are there any challenges or bottlenecks you have encountered and if so gives us examples and the solutions you have applied .
The project was scheduled to be fully completed by June 2016 . While the implementation of the project is 92 % complete , a few challenges affected the pace of implementation .
Health CS , Dr . Cleopa Mailu consoling a patients at Voi Referral Hospital during a tour of the facility on October 25th , 2016 .
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