David Kariuki: Machakos county most prone to road accidents

cabinet secretary for health Sicily Kariuki

Universal Health Coverage plan in Kenya saw Machakos being favored more as priority. Head of Policy, Planning and Health Financing David Kariuki has revealed that the president selected Machakos after research indicated that it was the county most prone to road accidents in Kenya.

The Kenya Health Sector Strategic and Investment Plan (KHSSP) 2014-2018 was also used in selecting Nyeri, Isiolo and Kisumu for the pilot run.

UHC means that all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. It includes the full spectrum of essential, quality health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care.

Participants in Dialogue towards UHC Forum 2017 in Tokyo and Launching of the UHC PHRD Project in Kenya

UHC enables everyone to access the services that address the most important causes of disease and death, and ensures that the quality of those services is good enough to improve the health of the people who receive them.

Achieving UHC is one of the targets the nations of the world set when adopting the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. Countries that progress towards UHC will make progress towards the other health-related targets, and towards the other goals. Good health allows children to learn and adults to earn, helps people escape from poverty, and provides the basis for long-term economic development.

Although the bad roads in Machakos may be the course of many accidents, The National Transport and safety Authority (NTSA) together with other Government Agencies have revealed the main reasons why 2018 has the highest death toll accruing from road accidents.

In a major crack-down of Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) along Nakuru-Nairobi highway, Road Safety Association of Kenya’s David Kiarie revealed that most of them had tampered with speed governors

The agencies also noted that over-speeding and reckless overlapping are among the top reasons why road accidents have been on the rise recently.

According to a commuter plying the Nairobi-Nakuru highway, the accident rate is so high that in a span of three hours, he witnessed four accidents on Sunday evening.

“Over 2,000 Kenyans have lost their lives so far this year and this is an increase from last year so we had to intervene and conduct this crackdown,” stated Mr. Kiarie during the crackdown.

NTSA, who intend to carry on with the crack-down until “sanity is restored” on the roads, suspended several Saccos for flouting traffic rules.

Nairobi, KENYA April 6, 2018 – The Government has prioritized attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) to reduce the expenditure burden that a majority …

The crackdown saw several drivers arrested and their vehicles impounded.

A report by NTSA also shows that despite passenger death drastically reducing this year, pedestrians are the most affected largely because of negligence. Most pedestrians cross busy roads at non-designated areas with several reportedly knocked dead under footbridges.

2,214 people have lost their lives between September 2017 to September 2018 as compared to 2,053 the same period last year. 3,302 sustained serious injuries this year than 2882 who did last year.

Nyeri was chosen due to the high prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cancers.

“Isiolo is among the top 15 high maternal mortality counties and representative of mobile population and Kisumu among counties with a high prevalence of communicable diseases such as HIV and malaria,” Dr Kariuki explained.

Dr David Gicheru Kariuki

Dr Kariuki further outlined that the UHC package will cater for outpatient care such as consultation, mental illness and emergency health care.

For inpatient care, UHC will include medical and surgical services, enhanced maternal and child health services and enhanced HIV/tuberculosis/malaria treatment.

He added that the goal is to ensure all Kenyans have access to the health services without having to get into financial hardships.

“That is promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative care.

“Key issues in universal health coverage include people, access to quality health services and financial protection,” he outlined.

The government is in the process of ensuring 100% of Kenyans are covered under the National Hospital Insurance Fund to foster the UHC initiative.

 

 

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