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

The Department of Health Services play a vital role in providing accessible, quality healthcare services, promoting public health, and in addressing the diverse health needs of Baringo residents. It ensures that the population's health is protected, promoting healthy behaviours, preventing diseases, and responding to health emergencies within Baringo specifically and Kenya in general.

Vision

Attractive, competitive and resilient County health systems

Mission

To invest in modern medical technologies and leverage on effective management of human and financial resources in offering affordable, accessible and high quality healthcare services.

Mandate

• Eliminate communicable diseases

• Halt, and reverse rising burdens of NCDs

• Reduce the burdens of violence and injuries

• Provide essential health services

• Minimize exposure to health risk factors

• Strengthen collaboration with health related sectors

Baringo County Department of Health Services is headed by the County Executive Committee Member Dr. Solomon Sirma and two Chief Officers, Dr. Winnie Bore who leads Medical Services and Mr. Evans Ruto who spearheads Public Health.

It is made up of three sections that include; Planning and Administration, Preventive & Promotive Health and Medical Services.

In order to reduce on referral cases to other hospitals in either Nakuru or Eldoret, Baringo County Referral Hospital-Kabarnet has over time, under the leadership of H.E. Governor Benjamin Cheboi EGH, EBS, been improved in terms of service delivery particularly specialist services so as to enable it become the preferred medical services provider in the region.

These high end services include Renal Unit, Radiology and Mammography, CT scan, Intensive Care Unit and High Dependency Unit for neonates.

From 2013 more than 47 dispensaries were built and 13 other similar facilities upgraded to health centres across the county. The sub county hospitals were elevated to level four referral hospitals while Baringo county referral hospital was promoted to be level five hospital.

In order to upscale its services the County Government employed more staff ranging from nurses, clinical officers, lab technicians and doctors while the existing medical personnel were re-trained in order to enable them acquire more skills and professional knowledge in their areas of specialization keeping in mind the ever changing medical technologies.

The CEC for Heath Services said that the Renal Unit with five bed capacity and more than 20 patients is operating optimally. The Unit that was established in 2016 has made great progress saving many lives since patients get dialysis within their reach unlike in the past when they used to be referred to Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital and Nakuru Provincial General Hospital.

These achievements saw tremendous steps towards realising the objective of attaining a healthy society free of diseases and pandemics. According to the department, many cases of frequent diseases especially malaria, upper respiratory diseases, communicable diseases such as TB, hepatitis B, measles, polio and influenza as well as waterborne diseases especially Amoeba, cholera, typhoid and dysentery drastically reduced due to improved service delivery.

In order to accord high quality and reliable health and therefore improved productivity for its residents, Baringo County Government has since 2013 invested heavily on health sector.

Kabarnet Referral hospital is being upgraded to level 5, complete with renal unit and CT scan, new X-Ray unit and oxygen plant. Maternity and general wards have also been refurbished in order to accommodate more patients. Eldama Ravine hospital hosts a new 32 bed capacity modern maternity built curtsey of partnership of Baringo County Government and Waitrose Foundation. Infrastructure development is key to the provision of services in our hospitals. We have established new health facilities especially in the far flung remote areas of our expansive county, renovating and upgrading existing ones and the construction of staff quarters in health centers across the county. For instance, a complete sub-county hospital is under construction in Mogotio and Nakoko dispensary in Tiaty is now operational.

It is gratifying to note that there are 22 operation- al ambulances across the county which has assisted in referrals and response to emergencies. In addition, more than 175 dispensaries and 28 health centers are operational in the county. This has significantly improved access to medical services. Also, 117 medical personnel including 6 consultants, 83 nurses & clinical officers, 18 lab technicians and 10 doctors have been recruited and more will be recruited during the next FY to alleviate the challenge of staff shortages.

Further, 839 health workers have been promoted in the county. We have been spending Kshs. 150 milllion annually in the procurement of medicines and non pharmaceuticals which are supplied to Baringo health facilities in a timely manner to eliminate out of stock cases. These interventions have seen tremendous improvement in access to high quality reliable and affordable health care services in Baringo County.

Achievements

The Department of Health BaringoCounty on 31^st Jan 2018 achieved major milestones on the Development, Validationand Adoption of key documents that the Human Resources for Health (HRH) Technical Working Grouphad been working on for some time, supported by AFYA UZAZI, namely:

1. HRH Strategic Plan for Baringo County 2018 – 2022.
2. Job Descriptions for leadership positions in the Dept. of Health.
3. Guidelines on Attraction and Retention Strategies for Health Care Workers.

The team was also able to determine the Workload andStaffing Gaps for all levels of Health facilities in the County using the WHO WISN (Workload Indicator of Staffing Needs) Tool. This will help in equitable redistribution of available staff and recruitment with availability of funds.

There was also an Award Ceremony for Best performing staffand Health facilitiesin the County, a first for all Departments the County. The award ceremony was graced by The Deputy Governor BaringoCounty H.E Jacob Chepkwony, CEC Health service Hon. Mary Panga, C. O. Health Services Mr. Richard Koech, and Dr. Abakalwa G. (CDH-A/P)