First Lady wants quality healthcare for all

First Lady Margaret Kenyatta has said even as efforts to escalate access to health services gain momentum, the issue of quality care should not be overlooked.

The First Lady said this as she endorsed the demand for quality healthcare as a key component in promoting Universal Healthcare Coverage in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) era.

“Increased delivery of healthcare should go hand in hand with provision of high quality services,” she said.

The First Lady was speaking on Wednesday at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, US, when she met Dr Margaret Kruk, MD, Associate Professor of Global Health in the Department of Global Health and Population.

Dr Kruk is also the Chair of the Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems in which the First Lady is a commissioner.

At the meeting – attended by Ms Constance Gakonyo, the Chief of Staff in the First Lady’s office, and Kenya’s Ambassador to the US Robinson Njeru Githae among others – Dr Kruk shared her commission’s findings contained in a report titled “High quality systems – time for revolution”.

The report will be officially launched on September 6 this year in Washington DC.

In her presentation, Dr Kruk said high quality health systems could save seven million lives each year in low and middle-income countries.

She added that improving quality should be a core component of the Universal Health Coverage initiative, alongside expanding coverage and financial protection.

The Commission also calls for national governments to ensure that poor people benefit from improved service and prioritise their health needs.

Later, the First Lady met with the former President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is attending the Harvard University Annual Leadership Forum for Education and Health Ministers as a Harvard alumni and a policy leader.