Makueni County Commissioner (CC) Khalif Abdulahi has called on the National Government Administration Officers (NGAO) and the Social Health Authority (SHA) officers to intensify registration of residents in a bid to benefit from the Social Health Insurance Scheme (SHIF).
The call comes at a time when it has been established that about half of the Makueni residents are not registered under the SHA programme, a situation that has hindered many from accessing quality and affordable health care in the health facilities in the area.
Consequently, the administrator revealed that only 52 per cent of the residents in the county are registered under the SHA programme and were accessing quality and affordable healthcare services without incurring extra costs.
“Nearly half of the residents in Makueni are yet to register with SHA. I therefore urge all NGAO and SHA officers to intensify sensitization efforts and ensure the residents register in order to benefit from the healthcare scheme,” said Abdulahi at Wote Technical Training Institute (TTI).
“Registration will ensure every Kenyan and their families can access healthcare services without incurring extra costs,” added the administrator when he officially opened the one-day training during the Public Officers Medical Scheme Fund (POMSF) Civil Servants Sensitization, Monitoring, and Evaluation Exercise.
During the training, he reminded the participants that the forum seeks to improve stakeholder engagement, enhance financial accountability and fraud prevention, gather evidence, and give feedback to inform the decision-making process.
Further, the CC encouraged the civil servants to ensure they had a correct and updated list of dependents to continue accessing a comprehensive and quality health care service whenever they needed it.
“This exercise is timely and it seeks to achieve several key issues, including improving stakeholder engagement and assisting in accessing quality health care, enhancing financial accountability and fraud prevention, and gathering evidence to help in decision-making,” said the CC.
Abdulahi further said that healthcare is a critical pillar in the Kenyan economy, saying it enhances employee productivity and promotes the well-being of civil servants, hence boosting service delivery.
Speaking at the same training, SHA Deputy Director In charge of Administration Lewis Masila said that Makueni is in position 27 out of 47 counties in registration of residents in the programme.
Masila pointed out that SHA was committed to providing sustainable and affordable health care for all Kenyans including civil servants in the country.
In this regard, he reminded civil servants to be ready to give their honest experience with SHA so that they can go and make changes with a view of giving better services to healthcare to Kenyans.
“SHA wants partnerships with other stakeholders so that we can make the scheme accessible and affordable. The essence of this training is to sensitize you to become ambassadors of the scheme. Also, we need feedback to help in decision making,” said Masila.
Present included Makueni SHA Manager Winfred Muli among others.
By Patrick Nyakundi
