CS Kariuki explains how she will deliver affordable healthcare under Big 4

Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki is confident that she is the person to deliver on President Uhuru Kenyatta’s agenda of providing affordable healthcare to Kenyans under the Big 4 Agenda.

Below, is an excerpt of the interview with Capital FM:

The Health Cabinet Secretary says her plan is simple; focus on primary healthcare where preventive and promotive healthcare takes centre stage over curative healthcare.

“The ministry has for a long time been focused on curative healthcare, which has failed to tackle the issues that are facing us. My focus is different, I want to start from scratch, go back to the drawing board, because most of the problems in this sector will be solved once we set our eyes on primary healthcare,” Kariuki said.

“Prevention is what is more important right now because if we look into it, more diseases will be detected and diagnosed which will be more manageable to the general public.”

Cancer, heart disease, diabetes and hypertension are some of the leading lifestyle diseases in the country, which Kariuki says could be easily tackled with proper primary healthcare.

To do the work, Kariuki is focusing on delivering the Universal Healthcare (UHC) pillars which she says will ensure she achieves the promise under the Big 4 Agenda.

As such, her eyes are set on ensuring everyone accesses to healthcare regardless of physical location; providing healthcare to Kenyans regardless of their financial standing and finally providing quality service care to Kenyans of all walks.

“Working on these pillars has made us interrogate which issues we need to fix. We have identified issues such as our preparedness in terms of service delivery. This is why we have brought in Governors because they are in charge of implementation since health is devolved,” CS Kariuki told Capital FM in an interview.

Her comments come at a time when UNICEF has pledged $150 million to the ministry. She says the funds will be used to support the primary healthcare in the country. As such, funds will go towards assisting malnourished children and fund immunization projects in the country among others.

Source:https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/