The Kenyan government is to start offering free medical services to poor patients at small public hospitals across the country from next month, health officials said on Monday.
”Effective July 1, patients will not be required to pay for diagnosis and treatment, at public health centres and dispensaries only,” said the national Director of Medical Services James Nyikal.
Health Minister Charity Ngilu said the new plan targets the poor who cannot afford to pay.
”We must ensure basic health care for the majority of poor people in Kenya,” she said on Monday.
More than half of about 30-million Kenyans live on less than a dollar a day.
”Patients will only pay a registration fee of 10 and 20 shillings (about 0,12 and 0,25 US cents) per visit at dispensaries and health centres respectively but children under the age of five will be exempted from these payments,” Nyikal said.
He added that patients will continue paying for services in provincial and referral hospital across the east African nation.
Medical services were free in Kenya until the early 1990s.
About nine-million Kenyans currently cannot afford basic health services, according to government estimates. – Sapa-AFP