Strengthening Health Workforce in Kenya
The KHF Human Resource for Health (HRH) Committee held a breakfast meeting at KHF offices on 16th of August 2018 to discuss on the committee progress in advocating for adequate human resources in the health sector, recruitment and retention of human capital and how to get the neglected cadres recognized.
The meeting was chaired by the committee’s vice Chair, Dr. Joyce Sitonik. The committee has had several engagements with the Ministry of Health (MoH) to discuss on how to get the neglected cadres recognized. In last year’s meetings with MoH, the primary agenda for the committee was to identify the neglected specialized cadres and those that need more attention in terms of regulation and standardization in order to bring them to a good quality assurance level. Thereafter, a partnership formed between Amref Health Africa, Kenya Healthcare Federation and Malteser International to strategize on how these cadres can be strengthened.
The Identified cadres were, health records and information officers, emergency care professionals and community health workers. The discussions have been very fruitful, with outputs such as the current effort by emergency medical technicians to form a professional association.
KHF identifies gaps within the public health sector and advocates for improvement or restructuring,including through Public Private Partnerships (PPP). For example, there is a problem in recruitment and retention HRH in the public sector. The committee will be holding a workshop that will address neglected specialized cadres, recruitment and retention strategies, Innovations (Corvus Health) and setting up objectives and terms of reference for the committee. It was agreed that in the workshop, there will be a representative from MoH HR unit.
Mr. Kennedy Auma and Dr. Joyce Sitonik were re-elected as the committee chairperson and vice chairperson respectively.This was the first meeting under the directorship of the elected KHF vice chair Dr.Elizabeth Wala and Ms.Faith Muigai.