Kenyan health delegation impressed with partnerships between SA’s government and private health sector

In pursuit of innovative ways to make public health services easily accessible to all citizens of their country, a Kenyan health delegation visited Alexandra to learn what the South African health department did to have an effective health system.

Led by governor Wycliffe Oparanya and chief officer for health in Mombasa Dr Khadija Shikely, the delegation said it was impressed by the partnership between the provincial Department of Health and Right ePharmacy that used a high level of technology to dispense medication to patients in less than three minutes.

Oparanya said his delegation learned a number of lessons after visiting various health facilities which they could use to help their country which had limited health resources to optimise access to its health services and eliminate long queues.

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“Having this kind of partnership in Kenya in which government partners with private companies like Right ePharmacy to eliminate long queues and congestion in public health facilities will be a milestone. We were inspired and impressed with the manner in which the South African health system works,” he said.

Oparanya added that all healthcare services in Kenya were delivered using manual processes and the country had few healthcare facilities and limited healthcare workers which made health services difficult to access.

“Patients with chronic diseases in Kenya walk long distances to collect their medication and are subjected to hours in long queues. Human resources is one of our major challenges in public health facilities. We will go back home and see if we can adopt some of the lessons learned during this trip in order to improve our public health system.”

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Patients with chronic diseases can now collect their medication in Alex Plaza in less than three minutes