Counties' medical equipment contracts to be terminated by end of July, Health Ministry says
Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha.
Vendors contracted by the government under the leasing agreement dubbed Medical Equipment Services (Mes), will terminate their services by the end of July, the Ministry of Health said.
In a closed-door meeting held at Afya House on Monday, May 15 evening, the contractors met Health cabinet secretary Susan Nakhumicha together with the Council of Governors (CoG) Health Committee chair, Muthomi Njuki and his deputy Ahmed Abdullahi.
They agreed to terminate the contracts after a review done by ministry officials in the 47 counties unearthed the inadequacies of the equipment supplied by the vendors.
“We did not want to do just a desktop review of a document. So, we put together a multidisciplinary team to ascertain the status of the equipment. We found out that some equipment has not been installed to this day, some have not been serviced in a long time and some are not even available,” said CS Nakhumicha.
“As a ministry, we have told them that we cannot continue the same way because we need value for money,” she said.
This follows a heated debate at the Senate last week that sought to clear the air surrounding the irregularities that marred the contracting of the leasing agreement that started in 2015.
Three years ago, an investigation whose report was brought to the Senate, was also rejected by the legislators.
At the moment, only one contractor has a week left before their contract lapses. However, the ministry has agreed with the vendors that they will stick around until July 31 to help in ensuring that there is a seamless rollover of the much-needed service.
Moving forward, the ministry says that the government will undertake a market assessment and develop criteria on what vendors should meet.
According to Ms Nakhumicha, there is a glaring shortage of personnel who can handle the medical equipment in counties, thus calling for a need for capacity building for biomedical engineers and other technical staff to ensure patients get quality healthcare.
Speaking to the media shortly after the interview, Mr Njuki said the report presented to the ministry showed that 27 counties have a report on gaps related to the machines.
This, he said, is because of the uncertainty that clouded the vendors regarding the future of their contracts with the ministry.
It is also the first time since the inception of the leasing agreement that governors met with the vendors.
“Whatever happens in the next few days, we have asked them to be in consideration and we cannot afford a lapse in the service of the machines. We do not want to see a situation where services in hospitals are affected,” said Njuki.
“Regardless of what happened, we have also agreed that vendors will be paid up until the set date. We only want the citizens to continue receiving the services,” he added.
Ahmed Abdullahi, the vice chair of the Council of Governor’s Health committee said that the challenges in terms of service delivery notwithstanding, the equipment have elevated the situation in counties.
“In the amendment of contracts, what we don’t want to see is a situation where service delivery is affected. We don’t want to argue about the renewal of contracts when Kenyans are queuing for dialysis services. Our interest as governors is to see a seamless handover process,” he said.
