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First Lady Anita Mutula to spearhead maternal and child health programmes

Makueni First Lady H.E. Anita Mutula will work in collaboration with the Department of Health Services towards better healthcare for children.

Anita revealed this during finalisation of 2023/2024 annual work plan. The event had brought together all the top managerial teams of the health docket.

The workplan will be the blueprint that will guide in areas of prioritization for health interventions as per the available resources as well as partner support.

While addressing the participants, the First Lady reiterated the need to curb malnutrition and premature births as a catalyst to increasing child survival.

Further, she underscored that malnutrition remains a huge public health burden and is the single greatest contributor to child mortality across the country.

Anita as well emphasised the importance of improving Reproductive and Maternal health services to address the needs of mothers.

Anita will be supporting the department in advocacy for service uptake as well as resource mobilization as the county works towards achieving the highest attainable quality of Health Servives.

 

Saving Lives Through Technology.

Proximie Global health leadership led by Dr. Shannon Shibata-Germanos, Head of Global Health Proximie, and the Safaricom team were on Thursday hosted by Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jr and the Makueni health team.
Proximie Global Health together with Jhpiego has partnered with the county government in providing healthcare services by integrating Proximie technology using live video feeds into Jhpiego’s evidence-based obstetric safe surgery (OSS) programme for greater mentorship and training.
According to Dr. Shibata-Germanos, Videos that surgical teams choose to record using the software are housed in the secure online Proximie library for future viewing.
This network has been used to connect 5 hospitals: Mother and Child, Makindu, Sultan Hamud, Mbooni, and Kibwezi hospitals in leveraging the software to enhance quality improvement and mentorship within the successful JHPIEGO led safe obstetric surgical training program.
Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jr noted that the technology will improve the obstetric surgical care for women in the county and will as well support his commitment to provide all women with dignity in childbirth and reduce maternal and newborn deaths and obstetric-related complications. Proximie and Safaricom are now exploring partnerships with the county to look towards the further scale of the programme across the whole county through enhanced connectivity towards UHC goals.

Makueni to conduct fistula surgeries.

Women living with fistula, a condition where women leak urine and stool are expected to receive free surgery and medical care services at the Makueni Mother and Child Hospital.
According to Dr. Doris Mbithi, a fistula expert based in Makueni, this will be the first time the county is offering such services. At least, nine county medical staff were trained at the gyno care fistula center in Eldoret to help with the operations.
Makueni’s Dr. Mbithi will be the lead surgeon.
Officiating the launch of the obstetric fistula treatment centre on Monday, Deputy Governor H.E Lucy Mulili urged the afflicted women to come out in large numbers for free treatment.
Mulili said she will be at the forefront of ensuring that women don’t live with incontinence and shame that comes with Obstetric Fistula.
 
 

Thrilling Experience as Kilifi County Assembly Health Committee Benchmarks Makueni’s UHC

Makueni Health Chief Officer Dr. Stephen Ndolo on Thursday received a delegation from Kilifi County Assembly’s Health Committee who visited to benchmark on Universal Healthcare.
Among the areas of interest were operations at the Mother and Child Unit, physiotherapy Department, Makueni Brain Centre, CT-Scan Centre, oxygen plant, cancer screening and Treatment unit and the Universal Healthcare registration desk.
Edward ziro, a member of Kilifi County Assembly representing Mwana-mwinga ward and the chair in the health committee lauded Makueni for equity in access to healthcare services yet the locals are able to receive highest standard of curative, preventive and promotion healthcare.
Dr. Ndolo noted that the program has been so entrenched in the people who have seen its benefit adding that there has been a lot of demand for health services since the onset of the programme.
 
 

Partnerships.

Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jnr, Health ECM Dr. Paul Musila, and Stephen Ndolo (Chief officer, health) today held collaboration talks with both Jacaranda health and Thinkwell at the governor’s boardroom.
The two partners are collaborating with Makueni county to implement quality ecosystems that aim at improving maternal and newborn healthcare solutions by linking them with available budget and data capabilities.
According to Joseph Mutweleli, Head of partnerships at Jacaranda health, this approach will leverage public partnerships and women’s voices to help the Makueni county government drive cost efficiencies in health funds as well as prioritizing investments in innovations and improvements in quality-of-care services.
Mutweleli, noted that the ultimate goal would be to increase available funds for maternal and newborn health solutions by 50% as well as reduce facility-based neonatal mortality and drivers of maternal death rate by 20%
The head of programs at Jacaranda health, Javan Waita, reported that the institution has been in Makueni since 2019. According to him, they have been able to enroll 95,040 pregnant and new mothers and reached 4,663 male partners across 80 health facilities where they empowered them with information to improve health-care seeking services through their PROMPT program.
The institution through a partnership with the health department has also been able to mentor over 250 nurses from 53 health facilities within the county who have successfully delivered over 1700 babies born every month.
Waita added that Jacaranda implemented a blood tracker innovation in 9 healthcare facilities, enabling them to identify the availability of blood.
Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jnr endorsed the program but urged them to hold counseling sessions for teen mothers who would most likely not say much as several of them might have gotten the babies as a result of defilement.
He stressed the need for pediatric wings in public hospitals within the county, indicating the importance of maternal healthcare.
 
Health Partnership -Makueni County
Health Partnership -Makueni County
Health Partnership -Makueni County

Makueni to deliver Emergency Drugs through Drone Services

Health facilities in Makueni will soon be able to receive essential and emergency medical supplies through aerospace, thanks to a partnership between the county government of Makueni and NARMA INCL. a Korean aerospace research institute that develops state of art delivery drones and services.
Deputy governor H.E Lucy Mulili, ECM Paul Musila (Health), Chief Officers; Stephen Ndolo (Health) and Japheth Kiminza (Environment, natural resources, mining and climate change) hosted officials from the company on Wednesday where they talked on a myriad areas of collaboration.
Eng. Suho Jung, the projects manager noted that the partnership seeks to improve on the timelines of delivering medical supplies especially those listed as emergency drugs such as anti – venom vaccines, anti – rabbis, blood among others via drone services.
The officials from NARMA INCL. are in Makueni for a recceing visit and to acquint themselves with the county’s topography before flying drones in the county.
Dr.Stan Kivai,chair Makueni Climate Change Fund Board said that they engaged the Korea International Corporation Agency (KOICA) through their resource mobilization aspect to bring the services to Makueni adding that the drones would considerably reduce the energy consumption.
Dr.Kivai was accompanied by Angeline Katunga, a member of the Climate Change Fund Board.

Nairobi seeks to adopt the Maisha Med Technology system, learns from Makueni.

Makueni county delegation led by CECMs Elizabeth Muli (ICT, Education and Internship) and Dr. Paul Musila(Health Services) met with Nairobi county Health, Wellness and Nutrition Sector team led by the CECM, Dr Anastasia Nyalita to showcase the experience Makueni county has had with Maisha Med Technology in management of health commodities supplied by KEMSA.
The system used in Makueni facilitates better transparency and accountability across the supply chain system and contribute to inventory accuracy up to the health facilities.
ECM Ms.Elizabeth Muli

Makueni on the right track for effective implementation of nutrition programmes

Nutrition International country director Martha Nyagaya has lauded Makueni County for the implementation and effective use of funds in its primary health programs addressing malnutrition.
Martha spoke while addressing a meeting between Nutrition International and Makueni health officials on the implementation status of projects supported by NI.
In 2019, the county secured Sh. 30 Million in funding to scale up efforts towards the fight against malnutrition especially stunting which has reduced from 25.1% to 20% according to Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (2022 KDHS).
The grant is complimentary to the county’s Sh 36 Million for the same cause as per the joint Nutrition financial agreement meant to actualize the implementation of the County Nutrition Action Plan (CNAP) that was unveiled in 2019.

Strategic Partnerships Review

Makueni County through the Directorate of Strategic Partnerships and Intergovernmental Relations on Wednesday embarked on a 3-day workshop to engage development partners with a view of co-auditing existing collaborations and chat the way forward.

According to Strategic Partnership Director Francis Nthuku, Makueni is a home of numerous and vibrant partners and its development success story cannot be complete without mentioning partnerships.

For instance, he noted, Makueni has been able to implement major flagship projects through collaborations. Some of them include the Wote Public Green Park, the Kalamba Fruit Processing Plant reconstituting line, the Public Participation Model, and the Grain Processing Plant at Makindu.

At the end of the workshop, the partners together with the county departments will identify areas of synergy to create new partnerships and deepen existing working relations to implement more development works to benefit the residents of Makueni.