By Winnie Nyakio and Sarah Masila

The USIU-Africa Research Department recently held a colloquium that addressed the governance of the country’s public hospitals. The colloquium saw Dr. Veronicah Kaluyu present a paper titled “The Influence of Quality Improvement and Performance Evaluation Practices on Creative Governance Success in Public Healthcare Sector; A Case of Public Hospitals in Kenya”, which highlighted how Kenya’s public health sector continues to face challenges in governance and the delivery of quality services.

In her presentation, Dr. Kaluyu noted that the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic not only caught hospitals in deplorable situations, but also brought about an outcry for the improvement of certain aspects, such as malpractice and the improvement in the overall quality of services in the public health sector.

Her sentiments were echoed by Dr. Bernard Omboi, a USIU-Africa member of faculty, who quoted a recent study showed that the Kenyan healthcare system was in danger.

“This study showed that healthcare professionals are scarce in the country, which can lead to low quality treatment, especially in remote regions of the country. We are not doing well in terms of health, if we are talking of ratios such as 1 nurse to 1,000 patients,” he said.

In conclusion of the colloquium, Dr. Kaluyu noted that there was a need to increase training and deliberately create a culture among Kenyan public hospitals that would lead to the adoption of better governance at these hospitals, which would have a direct impact on their output.