SCALING ACCESS TO MEDICAL OXYGEN IN KENYA - Assessment of Policy

The staff, anesthesiologists, biomedical engineers, qualitative approach allowed for a comprehensive and officials from organizations like AMREF, the understanding of the contextual factors influencing Kenya Medical Association (KMA), the Ministry of medical oxygen access and the experiences of Health, and the Oxygen Hub (Table 1). [...] The allocations were for response to the outbreak and mitigation of the impact of COVID-19 on the gains made in the fight against HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. [...] Consequently, this leaves the health facilities Kitui County is also a beneficiary of the AMREF vulnerable if the cylinders are in high demand, medical oxygen program, with the Kitui County as was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic, Referral Hospital being the main ordering where over 20,000 medical oxygen cylinders point for all the facilities under the program. [...] Nonetheless, the World Bank reportedly At the level of facilities, the major challenge is supported some facilities to piping oxygen to the inability of hospitals to recover the costs of the wards and casualty/triage areas. [...] The Ministry of Health is developing draft guidelines with the support of JHPIEGO The lack of coordination manifests in the and CHAI.