Lodwar- August 12, 2025 (Public Communication and Media Relations)
Following a successful sensitization meeting with the senior executive and assembly health committees, at least 33 sub-county health management team members have been brought up to speed on the same community feedback solution.
These include sub-county medical health officers, community focal persons, health records, and information officers.
The community scorecard is a new people-centered assessment tool purposed to enforce accountability, transparency, and advocacy by assessing critical health gaps across health facilities within the county.
The training targeted to equip sub-county teams with knowledge and understanding on how to implement the tool to monitor services and ensure improved delivery.
Some of the monitored indicators include respectful and compassionate care, waiting time for provision of health services , availability of medicine and diagnostic services, responsiveness to community health needs, cleanliness and safety of the facility, emergency and referral services among others.
Speaking at the meeting, Director for Community Health Services Dr Joseph Lolepo termed the scorecard strategy as community advocacy tool that aligns with the Kenya Community Health Strategy 2020-2025 that advocates for institutionalizing of social accountability in the quality of Primary healthcare.
‘’Through community scorecard, the community is empowered to participate in demanding equitable, improved health services and responsiveness of health-care facilities to the needs of the people,’’ he said.
Senior Program Officer at ALMA, Robert Ndieka, said the adoption of a community scorecard allows public participation and enhances community engagement to ensure that health services have reached the people.
“There is a need to develop specific, measurable, achievable, result-oriented, time-bound actions and implement them as they are vital in addressing health gaps,” he mentioned.
While sensitizing the team, Deputy Director for Health Records and Information Management Officer Ali Hassan encouraged the trainees to track the implementation of action plans and assess the impact of the scorecard on medical services delivery.
According to Nancy Eregae, Loima Sub-county Community Health Strategy Focal Person, this intervention will benefit the communities that previously lacked a tool that will hold service providers accountable.
“This will promote health-seeking habits as community members will be motivated by the quality of health services provided,” she stated.
On the other hand, Mark Esekon, Aroo Sub-county Community Health Strategy Focal person, the scorecard, has been designed to benefit even illiterate communities through color-coded and numbered cards, which are easy to understand.
“By numbering and colouring these cards, the illiteracy issue has been sorted as any member of the committee can easily understand how to rate each of the services they receive,” he said.
Representatives from the National Ministry of Health, Amref Health Africa, and the Danida Transcend project were also present.
