Health Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai on Tuesday announced seamless progress in the transition from the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) to the Social Health Authority (SHA).
While appearing before the Health Committee in Parliament, the PS disclosed the recruitment of SHA employees would begin once the Human Resource instruments under the new health scheme have been approved.
According to Kimtai, the onboarding of the SHA employees would depend on the approved staff establishment and the categories. He clarified the staff structure under SHA was different from that of the NHIF.
“As a new organisation, SHA must have its own HR instruments. That is the reason we have devolved the new HR instruments, so that when you onboard the staff it will depend on the staff establishment and the category of that staff,” PS Kimtai told the lawmakers.
“It is a normal process just like any other old organisation can request for approval of new staff structure based on the needs that they are currently facing," he added.
PS Kimtai noted that upon approval of the HR instruments, the government would then proceed and announce job vacancies under the new health insurance program.
According to PS, NHIF employees would be required to make applications for the SHA jobs. He noted that NHIF employees would be given priority during the process of recruitment.
Nonetheless, Harry Kimtai noted that due to variance in job categorisation under SHA, the NHIF employees would be required to apply based on the new classification.
“We are basically at the transition stage and coming up with the new structure which will help SHA onboard the current staff of NHIF based on the criteria that are set out,” the Health PS revealed.
“The criteria is that those staff that are in NHIF will apply for those positions because they are called different names under SHA. So those are the ones that will be advertised."
The latest announcement comes hardly a week after the Ministry of Health clarified that NHIF would continue to discharge financial services for health services despite persistent court battles.
“Pending the lifting of the Court orders and within the 45-day-stay order period, the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) services will continue to be availed to all paid-up and eligible members," read SHA's statement in part.
