The delivery of health care is a matter that is close to the heart of County residents. A healthy population is very critical in driving the socioeconomic growth of Baringo, yet healthcare still remains a challenge to many of our citizens.

The Department of Health Services is committed to addressing this challenge by utilizing all resources at its disposal to have attractive, competitive and resilient County health systems, which will improve the health status of its citizens through provision of quality, affordable and accessible health services. The situation of health facilities performing below par is unacceptable and will no longer be tenable in Baringo.

Among our priority interventions is ensuring that our County and Sub County Referral Hospitals are operating effectively and that they offer the best quality of services possible. This is particularly specialist services, towards our being the preferred medical services provider County in the region.

We will also ensure that all other facility levels right from Dispensaries are well manned by respective healthcare workers and that they are adequately supplied with medicine and non-pharmaceuticals. This will be complemented by efficient ambulance dispatch system to ease the handling of emergency cases, and referrals.

In addition to supplying our health facilities with sufficient drugs and non-pharmaceuticals, the Department has sourced and deployed a County Hospitals Management System that has automated the entire patient handling process from registration, revenue collection to drug dispensing. This tool is helping greatly in streamlining service delivery, even as it continues to enhance revenue collection in our hospitals.

All equipment and drugs without healthcare personnel will definitely not treat patients. We are working round the clock to ensure that as much as possible, all the staffing needs of our hospitals are met, across all cadres. I appreciate our healthcare professionals for continuing to offer selfless service as we continue to jointly work towards creating an environment conducive for effective service delivery to the people of Baringo.

All these County health plans and interventions will be monitored regularly and evaluated periodically to assess progress, identify shortcomings and most importantly make necessary adjustments for improvement.

Dr. Solomon Kibet Sirma, CECM Health Services