Health Cabinet Secretary Nakhumicha Wafula recently met with Dr Azim Lakhani and Noreen Kassam, Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) Kenya representatives. They discussed possible partnerships between the Aga Khan Hospital and the government to improve primary healthcare services.
With the hospital’s network of over 50 clinics countrywide, Nyumba Kumi would come in handy as regards community healthcare (CHC) outreach.
The model, started in Tanzania as a tool against crime, encourages people to reach out to one another, communicate and share data about each other. That helps communities to screen security dangers and share data to the nearby organisations and security organs. Every 10 households or estimated level of neighbourhood (cell) guarantee security and open fulfilment to one another under a cell leader.
The police is still in charge; so, the initiative is a joint venture between policing organs and society. Kenya isn’t doing as well as Tanzania on this score.
CHC is the most inclusive, equitable, cost-effective and efficient approach to enhance people’s physical and mental health and social well-being. There is growing evidence of wide-ranging impact of investment in CHC around the world.
Imagine every neighbourhood had a youngster with minimal educational level trained in basic healthcare. That would probably include health promotion, disease prevention and disease detection.
Health promotion and disease prevention would include basic hygiene practices and nutrition and disease detection a test on body temperature, blood pressure and blood sugar levels. Recurrent cases would be escalated to the healthcare facility for treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care.
I imagine the level of acceptance when such a service is given by one from our neighbourhood, understanding our culture having grown amongst us. The basic training to the youth would take place at the local health centre. Local administrators would do the identification of potential trainees.
With our struggling economy, increasing the wage bill through additional community primary healthcare workers will be unrealistic and unsustainable. Let the youth seeking to join public tertiary institutions give a minimum six months’ voluntary community health service.
They will be easy to train on establishing useful indicators of the health status of an individual to prevent a serious health condition. For example, if high blood pressure is detected early, a patient could be saved from heart attack, stroke or other complications like aneurysm, heart failure, kidney problems, eye problems, metabolic syndrome, changes in memory and dementia.
To ensure compliance, on completion, every youth will require a recommendation from an immediate supervisor in the health sector and a local administrator. A cohort will be selected every year to keep the service alive.
The new cohort gets a week-long mentorship from the outgoing one. With community participation, inter-sectorial coordination, appropriate technologies and support mechanisms, I foresee reduction of killer and maiming diseases. BY DAILY NATION