Research shows essential health services disrupted by Covid-19
Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi.
What you need to know:
- According to the study, outpatient services dipped at the onset of the pandemic but picked up after sometime, only for the setback to arise again when there was a healthcare workers strike in December 2020.
- There was also an increase in sexual violence cases.
The Covid-19 pandemic slowed down progress that had been made on essential health services in the country, a new study has shown.
The study done by Kenyan scientists and published in the scientific journal Lancet highlighted about 17 key indicators of essential health services that were disrupted.
On the flipside, the study revealed that there were some positive aspects that were picked up from the pandemic that the scientists suggest should be carried on.
The study’s lead author, Dr Helen Kiarie, who works at the Division of Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of Health, explains that the 17 indicators selected were on health services that are sought most by patients.
“Some of those are the outpatient services for adults and children. In addition, services that affect women and children were included as they can easily give an indication of performance of a health system. Indicators on diseases that would be adversely affected by lack of treatment were also included such as lifestyle diseases (non communicable diseases such as diabetes and cancer) and infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS.”
The study was partitioned into four periods — pre-pandemic, onset of the pandemic, during the healthcare worker strikes, and after the strike.
According to the study, outpatient services dipped at the onset of the pandemic but picked up after sometime, only for the setback to arise again when there was a healthcare workers strike in December 2020. There was also an increase in sexual violence cases.
Prof Thumbi Mwangi, one of the co-authors and co- director, Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (CEMA) based at the University of Nairobi, explained to Healthy Nation that the non-pharmaceutical interventions imposed during the pandemic had an impact on the indicators.
“The non-pharmaceutical interventions such as restricted movement, minimised contact between people and restricting some hospitals to be isolation centres affected essential health services,” he said
“When the pandemic started, we had information from previous outbreaks and epidemics such as Ebola and we knew there were big effects that came from people not going to health facilities,” he added.
The positive indicators include plummeting respiratory illness such as pneumonia as well as diarrhoea cases. “The cases that were seen in hospitals actually went down, and it could be partly an indication that some of these non-pharmaceutical interventions such as washing hands would have reduced the likelihood of pathogens that cause diarrhoea or respiratory illnesses,” explained Prof Thumbi.
Other key essential services such as skilled delivery as well as ensuring newly diagnosed people living with HIV got the required treatment received interventions in good time before there was a damaging effect.
Prof Thumbi highlighted the need for frequent data collection in all facilities regardless of their stature; whether private or public
Responding to the obstruction caused by the strike, Prof Thumbi said in future, the country can protect itself from such issues by investing wholly in the health system and having good governance at the helm.
