Busia Health ministry inks major MoU for supply of oxygen to sub-counties

_{By County Press}

The leadership at the Department of Health and Sanitation on Monday met with a consortium of three organizations to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for an oxygen supply project, in an inception meeting that brought together representation from Center of Health and Development, DT- Global International Development, Brink and Kenya Pediatric Research Consortium (Keprecon).

According to the MOU signed, the Center of Health and Development will oversee the supply of health equipment, DT-Global will provide funding for the initiative, Brink comes on board with the component of behavior change, while Keprecon will offer logistics guidance throughout the project’s implementation.

Busia County Deputy Governor and CECM in charge of the Department of Health and Sanitation, H.E Arthur Odera, welcomed the gesture noting that it will go a long way in addressing some of the challenges the department has been facing.

“We have unique challenges as a border County since the patients we attend to about 30% are from the neighboring Country of Uganda, with most of them having Kenyan identification cards, we have no method or right as a government to deny them services yet our budget from shareable revenue does not reflect ability to serve them,” he said.

The Deputy Governor further proposed speeding up staff integration and technical considerations that come with the intervention, a concern aimed at enhancing sustainability mechanisms factoring in departmental planned equipment’s obsolescence.

Dr. Wilberforce Lusamba, the Chief Officer in charge of Medical Services and Universal Health Cover(UHC), said there is a need for public awareness, to attain the intended objective by changing the community mindset alluding to the societal belief that when a baby is put on oxygen will die, emphasizing that the communities must know that somebody may not be sick but because of oxidative processes in the body, circulation might be less hence urge to boost.

Dr. Benard Olayo, Founder of Center of Health and Development, said they were very keen to partner with Busia County in the provision of oxygen backup sources and accessories besides training technical health workers to ensure that all sub-county hospitals have reliable, affordable high-quality oxygen primarily for children under the age of five years who are the most in need and by extension to other patients in need.

DT- Global International Development Head of the Program, Ms. Millicent Oketch said that their role is to provide funding and generate evidence that can be replicated by facilitating the provision of quality oxygen as a service to primary-level hospitals making sure oxygen is continuously available and that is up taken by the county government at the end of the trial period ensuring sustainability beyond.

Ciku Mbugua from the Brink organization said they believe in innovation being paired with behavioral science and change; they anticipate working with communities to make sure there is a strong component of behavior change when it comes to oxygen as a service to guarantee sustainability.

Professor Fred Were, Kenya Pediatric Research Consortium (Keprecon) indicated that they have planned to roll out in all the seven sub-counties in Busia County adding that there is no need for someone running from sub-county hospitals to County hospitals to seek oxygen.

The project is set to commence this month and will bridge the gap in health provision and ensure that there is availability of oxygen where it is most needed.