Friday 18 November 2016

TURKANA COUNTY SUCCESS STORY-EXTRACT.

A few years ago, mothers delivering at home in most villages of Turkana county was common practice. At Nanam village one would have to fight hard to convince mothers on the need to seek prenatal care services and the need to deliver at health facilities.
Despite the risks associated with home deliveries, these deliveries were the order of the day for the mothers of Nanam location in Turkana West sub county.
However, the story is changing albeit slowly and at least five mothers are now giving birth at Nanam health center every month after the maternity wing was fully equipped.
The facility’s nursing officer, John Cheruiyot said a total of 88 mothers delivered at the facility last year thanks to the equipping of the maternity wing of the health centre.
“The maternity wing is fully functional and was constructed at a cost of Shs 10 million has been serving five to six clients per month,” said Cheruiyot.
The facility is one of the three facilities in Nanam ward the others being Lopiding sub county hospital, and Nasinyono dispensary. The ministry of health has been allocated one of the largest budgetary allocations ostensibly to address the long distances that patients had to cover to reach health facilities. Last year it was allocated Shs. two billion.
The ministry is headed by Jane Ajele and is said to be among the top performing ministries in the county.
According to the nursing officer, the three facilities serve an average population of 60,000 which is mainly comprised of persons who migrate in search of water and pastures for their livestock thereby causing the figure to vary at various seasons.
Another notable development at the facility is that HIV positive patients are administered with anti retroviral drugs. Tuberculosis treatment which was previously being done at sub county hospitals only is only available at Nanam health centre.
Cheruiyot says these measures have really helped in the fight against TB because in the past most patients who were referred to Lopiding sub county hospital never used to go to the hospital.
The ministry of health has also increased staff at the facility from two to six health care providers who include two nurses, community worker, one nutritionist, one HIV testing and counseling service provider, and a data clerk.
In a bid to make their stay comfortable the ministry has constructed two housing units for the staff . Other developments at the facility include a male and female ward.
To ensure the smooth running of the health facility, Shs. 470,000 from the health sector development fund is injected to the facility every financial year in additional to drugs and a motorbike attached to the facility to ease mobility.
However the main challenge facing the facilty is access to water. The demand for water at Nanam ward is very high since much of the water is used by livestock.
Residents are now appealing to the county government to put measures in place to ensure they get enough water supply since the borehole at Nanam cannot meet their demand for the precious commodity.
By master Bakari