I am grateful for the opportunity to join you in launching this strategic plan for the Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital. I would like to start by congratulating the board, management and all persons who contributed to this strategic plan, for your hard work, commitment and progressive ideas.
Meru Vision 2040 envisions Meru County as a regional hub for medical care. It envisions that in the medium term we should have high level quality medical facilities offering specialised treatment for medical conditions currently being treated outside the country. I am glad to note that the Strategic Plan seeks to position the Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital as a premier health institution in the Kenya in line with the Kenya Vision 2030, Meru Vision 2040, and the Meru County Integrated Development Plan (2018-2022) as well as the Global Health Agenda.
Since 2017, my Government has invested heavily on health infrastructure especially at Meru Teaching & Referral Hospital. With the support of the National Government and Development Partners we have made a lot of progress. For the first time in the history of Meru County, we have a functioning Renal/ ICU unit, Oncology unit which include diagnostic and treatment center, and a high-capacity oxygen plant. Construction of an ultra-modern 300 bed capacity ward block is also almost complete. We are designing a cancer center and a blood bank to support blood and blood components services at this county. We are also improving our level 4 facilities and health centers so as decongest the Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital and make it a specialized referral hospital.
With the help of the County Assembly, we have enacted the Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital Board Act. The Act provides a legal framework for establishment of Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital Board as a body corporate to ensure provision of specialized and quality healthcare to the people of Meru County.
The Act also converts the facility as now existing(Level 5) into a top teaching and referral hospital(Level 6) by delinking it from the other health facilities under the County Government. We hope that this will assist us to deal with the issue of inadequate medical personnel, medicines and inadequate facilities at county government hospitals, especially in terms of specialized services including but not limited to ICU, cancer center, MRI, Renal units and many others. We are in the process of constituting the new board as required by the Act.
Health financing has been and still is the backbone of our health sector. With sufficient resources we would be able to offer quality health care to our population. We have done our best to finance health care. Indeed, provision of health care takes almost a third(1/3) of our total annual budget. However, this is not enough. We need more resources to finance health especially with emerging issues like Covid- 19, increase in cancer burden, accident and trauma caused by the vibrant bodaboda sector and lifestyle changes leading to increase in non-communicable diseases. Erratic and delayed disbursements of our revenue share from the National Treasury has only worsened the situation.
With limited resources, my Government has encouraged partnership in health just like in other departments. We have been able to achieve a lot through collaborations and partnerships with the National Government, NGO’s, Foreign Governments Agencies, Faith Based Organizations, Public Private Partnership and well-wishers. I am happy to report that the US Embassy in Kenya is donating to us seven (7) ventilators to beef up our efforts to fight Covid-19. My Government will continue to create a conducive environment for any other partner who would wish to make difference to the lives of people’s health.
Finally, we have the document, what is remaining is walking with the document. A good plan is good as to extent to which it will be implemented.
The implementation of this Plan will be monitored on a continuous and regular basis and evaluated annually. A strategic plan implementation matrix detailing the objective description, intended results; measure description has been developed for objective Monitoring. Am happy a result matrix has also been developed to guide the process of Monitoring and evaluation. It is expected that by the end of the strategic plan period, the Hospital will realize its vision of becoming a specialized regional hospital providing world class health services.
I invite you all to partner with me as we make this great vision a reality.
God bless you all, and God bless Meru.
