Effect of devolution on healthcare administration in Murang'a County, Kenya
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Date
2020
Authors
Njoroge, Gitonga
Moi, Edna
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Academic Journals
Abstract
The health administration managers play a
critical role in healthcare decision-making,
and their susceptibility to local and regional
politics is noteworthy. This is despite the
need for channeling more resources towards
the devolution of healthcare in the 47
counties in Kenya. While an expansive body
of literature has explored the implications of
devolution on certain aspects of an economy,
little has been published on the effect it has
on healthcare administration. There is a little
empirical study on the effect devolution has
on the administration of health services in
Gatanga Sub-county in Murang'a County
despite having a population of 95,601 people.
According to the agency theory, an agent
ought to serve in the best interest of the
principal. By extrapolation, regional
healthcare administrators ought to serve
better their principals after they are
empowered by devolution. To that effect, this
study ought to examine the effect of
devolution on healthcare administration in
Gatanga Sub-county. The study sought to
achieve three key objectives, namely (a) to
assess the effects of devolution on healthcare
financial planning, (b) to examine the effects
of devolution on the management of
healthcare facilities; and (c) to evaluate the
effects of devolution on healthcare human
resource management. A randomly selected
sample of 91 healthcare practitioners, 46
healthcare beneficiaries, and 19 healthcare
administrators in the county was involved in
the study. Data was collected using semistructured questionnaires and analysed using
descriptive analysis. It was observed that the
county government primarily funds
healthcare service with minor support from
grants from the national government and
donors. They experienced a range of financial
challenges, namely unreliable, delayed, and
insufficient funding, lack of sufficient
equipment. It was also observed that
devolution had improved administration
through expanding managerial space and
improvement in overall service delivery.
However, operational challenges, such as
poor involvement of stakeholders in day-today operations and decision-making, were
rampant. Lastly, devolution has allowed
healthcare facilities to attract qualified
workers, perhaps from local societies,
although staff challenges such as staff
demotivation and inadequacy of CPD
opportunities were observed. This study
recommends fostering capacity building for
local healthcare facilities to help in bolstering
the skills of healthcare administrators and the
need for awareness among administrators
concerning the welfare of healthcare
practitioners.
Description
A research article published in International Academic Journal of Arts and Humanities (IAJAH)
Keywords
devolution, healthcare administration, human healthcare resource, healthcare financial planning
Citation
Njoroge, G. & Moi, E. (2020). Effect of devolution on healthcare administration in Murang'a County, Kenya. International Academic Journal of Arts and Humanities, 1(2), 141- 156