Govt to reverse policy on KMTC transfers DP Ruto

Deputy President William Ruto has said that the government is in the process of reversing the policy that transferred some staff of the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) to the counties.

He expressed concern that the policy, which was in line with the devolution of health services, had adversely affected training of medical staff in the country’s 37 campuses of the KMTC and should be reversed to make qualified trainers available at the campuses.

“Indeed the Kenya Medical Training College has faced challenges because of transition from a centralised system to the devolved government and part of the staff that were training students were transferred to county governments yet the function of training is for national government,” he said.

“We are in the process of reversing that particular issue so that KMTC can get staff that were devolved back on their payroll to continue to provide the professional training as in the past,” he added.

Ruto was speaking during the 83^rd graduation ceremony at the Kenya Medical Training College in Nairobi where 7,000 students graduated.

At the same time, Mr Ruto announced that the government had plans to enhance KMTC’s budget by Sh500 million this year to facilitate capacity building in the new KMTC centres established around the country.

The DP further expressed satisfaction that uptake of insurance cover had increased in the country, noting that the number of Kenyans who had medical policies with the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) had increased from 3.7 million to 5.7 million in the last two years.

He stated that the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) facility was in the process of being expanded to include diploma colleges.

“We have made the facility available to you and you can only access it if you apply. I am therefore urging diploma students and parents to apply for the HELB loans because we need a big resource of middle level personnel to drive the development agenda of this country.”

The chairman of the board of management of the KMTC, Philip Kaloki, noted that the institution trains more than 80 per cent of health staff in the country, adding they were increasing capacity of training so that each county can have a KMTC campus.

“We have opened 16 KMTC campuses around the country in the last one year so as to address the shortage of health staff,” he said.

He noted that KMTC was implementing reforms in its expansion programmes to encourage Public Private Partnership in key development areas.

Principal Secretary for Health Ms Khadija Kassachon was also present.