The Health Cabinet Secretary, Aden Duale, has directed all regulatory bodies under the Ministry of Health to survey and report to him every three months on the country's maternal mortality rate.
Speaking during a meeting with the Council of Governors on Thursday, April 24, the CS said that the bodies should pull up their socks and hold regular consultative meetings with county governments and the national government to identify gaps in the health sector, facilitating maternal mortality.
According to the CS, the move aims to reduce the rate of maternal mortality in the country and project Kenya's maternal healthcare as the most prominent in the region.
The CS issued the directive during a consultative meeting between the COG and the ministry on the implementation of universal health coverage in Naivasha.
"In three months, if we have a maternal mortality in a faculty, let's say level five, of 10-15 mothers, we must be concerned, and so the regulatory bodies must go and sit with the governors and inform them of where the problem is so that the governors can now also sit down with other heads of county health and the facilities and agree and tell us where the problem is," he says.
Speaking during the same event, the Tharaka Nithi County Governor, Muthomi Njuki, who is the chairperson of the health committee of the COG, attributed maternal mortality to negligence, especially from healthcare professionals.
Njuki claimed that his county recently suspended several health practitioners who he claims contributed to the passing away of a mother who was giving birth in one of the county hospitals.
"Recently, we lost a mother in my county, and it was because there was a breakdown of communication between the lab and the theatre. There was a need for emergency blood for the mother, which the lab said could not be matched within the time that was required, and by the time the blood was available, the mother had passed," he said.
"The officials who were involved in the case are now under suspension because it is very wrong that somebody who walked in to walk out with life is no longer there, and the baby does not have a mother, and it's something that could have been avoided," he added.
The directive comes a day after the CS directed the Council of Clinical Officers(COC) to reinspect all licensed health facilities and submit a detailed report to the Ministry of Health.
Speaking on Wednesday, April 23, the CS said that the council should be firm in ensuring integrity, evidence-based regulation, and transparency in the licensing and oversight of clinical officers and facilities in the country.
According to the CS, the move will be fundamental in safeguarding the standards of training and professional practice, which he noted was paramount to ensuring the health and safety of the public.
"Do not license any clinical officer trained in an institution that has not been duly merited, inspected, and audited by the Council," Duale stated.
