Vincent, our laboratory technician
The 21st August 2018 marks a very significant moment in Buburi’s history. On this day NHIF (National Hospital Insurance Fund) accreditation was awarded to the clinic. This is Kenya’s equivalent of our NHS but works in a very different way and is not as comprehensive. However it is a promising beginning and hopefully will help to ensure the future sustainability of Buburi Clinic.
Buburi Clinic is now named Buburi Community Nursing Home and is registered as an NHIF health facility. This means that patients who are contributing to NHIF (similar to our National Insurance) will be entitled to use Buburi’s facilities for free and Buburi will be able to reclaim the costs from NHIF (Kenyan Government). Those living in the community will also be asked to select their preferred place of care and NHIF will pay the clinic a small amount for all the patients selecting Buburi. There are also facilities made available for the most vulnerable to be treated for free. This income will then help the clinic to become more independent of outside funding in the future.
The long road towards gaining NHIF has been somewhat of a roller coaster and has not always gone smoothly. Many challenges have been faced along the way with constant demands from NHIF for certain requirements such as building a perimeter wall, employing a Clinical Officer, more in-patient beds, a new kitchen, staff quarters, toilets, and a new laboratory. This has placed an enormous financial strain on the clinic and Friends of Buburi’s resources.
The latest challenge arrived on 30th August by way of an official notice from the Public Health Office warning of closure for the clinic if a new Laboratory was not built within 30 days! As neither Friends of Buburi nor the clinic initially had the resources to build a new Laboratory we were just waiting to see what happened. However, in the meantime, the CBO thought they would take the initiative to start digging the foundations and then a very generous donation was given to the charity to enable the building of the laboratory to continue. Jo and Jackie will be visiting the clinic on the 23rd of September and will look forward to updating you all on the progression of this latest project.