Health funding vital

Behind the controversy over transfer of health personnel to the counties, some significant steps are being made towards improving the quality of health care in public institutions.

Last week, the Cabinet approved a lease-and-maintain programme that will see the private sector equip hospitals, recoup costs and leave the machines in the institutions over ten years.

On Tuesday USAid, General Electric and KCB announced a programme that will enable private clinics access credit for buying modern diagnostics and treatment aids.

The first initiative promises to address the problem of misdiagnosis which leads to wrong prescriptions and potentially death. Secondly, it has the potential to reduce the costs patients incur in seeking tests and treatment in expensive private hospitals or abroad.

The second initiative is important in that it seeks to address the gaps in small clinics that are often the first line of medical care especially in areas underserved by public health facilities.

If these two programmes succeed, they could turn a new leaf in the delivery of quality health care in Kenya.

That is why they need the support of the private sector to succeed. Health equipment manufacturers should take up the leases, not because they are lucrative openings, but because they also provide a social dimension to enterprise.

These kind of public private partnerships are the future of better and affordable service, especially in the social sector where Treasury allocations are inadequate.