NHIF also got into partnership with seven hospitals who had the capacity to offer these much-needed surgeries, the Karen Hospital being among the seven. [Photo/Twitter]
After close to three years of waiting, many patients with cardiac conditions can now breath easy nine months after the launch of the NHIF-initiated Cardiac Programme.
Due to lack of capacity to provide cardiac surgeries, a long waiting list of Kenyans with diverse cardiac conditions was building up at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).
Over 1400 patients were on that list when NHIF picked it up and began paying for these cardiac surgeries to a maximum of Sh 500,000.
NHIF got into a strategic partnership with A&K Global Health, a reputable international health management organization to help in mapping out the most needy cases, seeing that most of the patients were in a bad condition, yet did not have the money to pay for the procedures and post-operative care.
NHIF also got into partnership with seven hospitals who had the capacity to offer these much-needed surgeries, the Karen Hospital being among the seven.
Close to ten months later, the Cardiac Programme has provided a new lease of life to hundreds of patients.
‘’The Cardiac Program is a result of years of concerted effort by NHIF to address both financial and clinical hurdles to Kenyans by utilizing local expertise of doctors and state-of-the-art medical equipment found locally in our hospitals. The program is expected to tackle the problem of cardiac disease and reduce the waiting period for heart patients at an affordable price,” said A&K Global Health CEO, Mr Stephen Makokha at a press conference organized to highlight the milestones achieved by the Programme.
NHIF, through the Programme, wishes to act as a bridge between local hospitals and acquisition of technology, knowledge and capacity that will enable the country to be in a position to tackle the rising numbers of cardiac patients.
Currently, there are only seven cardiothoracic surgeons in Kenya who can perform open heart surgery, and only six cardio-anesthetists and six perfusionists.
In addition, the country only has a total ICU bed capacity of 74.
As a result, the Cardiac Programme is now inadvertently pushing local hospitals to willingly increase their capacities in terms of seeing the need to train more local cardiac doctors and bringing in more specialists to encourage knowledge transfer.
Said the Karen Hospital CEO, Dr. Betty Gikonyo: “To date, over 67 open heart surgeries have been conducted in this facility, five of which are Coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), a complex and rare procedure performed by our resident Cardiothoracic Surgeon. When we rolled-out this programme in December 2016, we were committed to set-up a full resident cardiac team in a bid to tackle one of the main challenges facing the health sector –limited number of doctors available to perform heart surgeries in Kenya and even fewer who can conduct open heart surgeries.”
According to A&K Global Health CEO, the Programme can act as a great catalyst to encouraging medical tourism which will allow citizens of other African countries to visit Kenya for their medical needs rather than travel overseas for expertise available within the continent. Local expertise will also encourage Kenyans to seek specialist care locally rather than travel to other countries for the same.
The Cardiac Programme is only one of the benefits the public can now access from NHIF. The insurer package also caters for an expanded free maternity programme, outpatient and inpatient services, renal dialysis and a number of chronic illnesses.