Crisis in counties as broken medical equipment paralyse services in hospitals

Thousands of Kenyans across the 47 counties cannot access essential medical services including dialysis, radiography and laboratory tests as most equipment procured under the Medical Equipment Services (MES) have broken down.

Many counties have began referring patients to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) for the crucial services, as they lack expertise or even credentials to operate the equipment.

This was preceded by the State failing to extend servicing contracts to the vendors who have been running the equipment for the last seven years.

Attempts by the Council of Governors (CoG) to have the contract extended have fallen on deaf ears, with the State withdrawing a Ksh.6 billion budgetary allocation from the supplementary budget, throwing the whole programme into confusion.

At the onset of the 7-year contract signed by all 47 counties for medical equipment services, three exit clauses were established.

Upon the contract's conclusion, the options were to either extend the contract for an additional three years, transfer the equipment to the Ministry of Health, or have the equipment decommissioned and disposed of by the contractor.

Under the deal, the Ministry of Health was to undertake a survey of all the equipment no later than 18 months before the expiry of the contract to establish their usability and netbook value to determine whether or not to terminate or extend the contracts.

However, failure by the Ministry of Health to make a decision has thrown the scheme into confusion, with the vendors not clear on the way forward.

In July 2023, the government engaged the vendors on a temporary basis to help service the equipment at a fee, but the service was discontinued after the State failed to pay a Ksh.3.4 billion fee.

The standoff was compounded during a summit meeting held at State House in Nairobi chaired by President William Ruto on December 19, 2023.

President Ruto sought the indulgence of the county bosses to terminate any further financial commitments to the medical scheme despite a 15-month appeal by the CoG to have the scheme extended in line with recommendation by a team appointed to review and advice the Ministry of Health on the best option to choose.

This was followed by the withdrawal of the Ksh.6 billion initially included in the supplementary budget to offset the servicing fee.

A meeting called on Tuesday at the Kenya School of Government between a team from the CoG and the State team, led by Health Cabinet Secretary Wafula Nakhumicha, failed to broker a deal on the same.

The seven governors, Muthomi Njuki (Tharaka Nithi), Ahmed Abdullahi (Wajir), Gladys Wanga (Homa Bay), Fernandes Barasa (Kakamega), Mutula Kilonzo jr (Makueni), Mutahi Kahiga (Nyeri) and Stephen Sang (Nandi) have been instructed to meet officials from the Ministry of Health on Thursday to negotiate with the four vendors on possibilities of reviving the equipment and transitioning from the medical scheme.