Health Workforce Plan for Kenya 2024

Running head: Health Workforce Planning 1
Health workforce Plan for Kenya 2024
(Author’s name)
(Institutional Affiliation)

Health Workforce Planning 2
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Environmental Scan.........................................................................................................................4
Population characteristics and geographical region....................................................................4
Political system............................................................................................................................5
Economic status...........................................................................................................................5
Health contest and status.............................................................................................................6
Health Systems............................................................................................................................6
Health Work Force Profile...............................................................................................................7
The Stakeholders.........................................................................................................................7
Health care workers numbers and ratio in Kenya........................................................................8
Other health workforce vital Statistics........................................................................................9
Critical issues.................................................................................................................................10
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................14

Health Workforce Planning 3
Introduction
The health workforce of a country simply means the actual number of medical care
providers offering medical services. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 2013
report there are four major pillars on which determines the country’s health workforce. These are
having enough number of professionals in health care in regard to country’s cercus, even
distribution of health care providers and infrastructure based on, time of operation, accessibility
and the costs incurred in health care delivery either directly or indirectly(Campbell et al., 2013).
Another determinant of the health care system of a country is acceptability and quality of
services based on trained professionals, level of competency and continuity in
education(Tackling NCDs: the capacity of countries to respond, n.d.). The availability,
accessibility, and distribution of health workers at any particular time show the level of medical
services in a given country based on the recommended WHO medical workers to population
ratio and therefore giving the recommended health care for every citizen(MOH, 2013). There are
conditions that will determine the amount of the health workforce which constitute not less than
the following; change in population and demographics, policies, death and morbidity percentage,
the burden brought about by ailments and other related factors will have an influence on the
demand for medical services(WHO, 2016).
Therefore, in order for any country to avoid inconveniences brought about by healthcare
systems, it must come up with strategic plans on the healthcare workforce(Miseda, Were,
Murianki, Mutuku, & Mutwiwa, 2017). This plan will help determine the number of health
workers, the gap existing, how the development is done, how monitoring and implementation of
strategies in the health systems need to be carried out, control and management, improvement in
quality and policies needed to improve healthcare. A good health workforce plan should consider

Health Workforce Planning 4
the situational assessment needed by policymakers, donors, researchers, regulators, and world
financial institutions in order to enhance improvement in healthcare planning(Al-Sawai & Al-
Shishtawy, 2015). This study intends to provide a comprehensive health workforce plan for
Kenya. Kenya has been chosen for this assignment as the country is among the low middle-
income nations according to WHO statistic report of 2016. In this study, the environmental scan
on healthcare in Kenya, profile for the health workforce, critical issues arising, recommendations
will be provided.
Environmental Scan
Population characteristics and geographical region
Kenya is located on the Eastern part of Africa along the equator. It has around 43 ethnic
groups with Bantu subgroups forming the majority of the tribes, followed by the Kenyan
Highland Nilotes, Cushites, Plain Nilotes and Liver Lake Nilotes(HEALTH SITUATION, 2018).
The country has an area of around six thousand square kilometers. It contains seven geographical
regions and 47 counties. It has a coastline of around 540 kilometers on the shores of the Indian
Ocean. Kenya is bordered by Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania. Kenyan
Census put its population at around 47,681,779 people by 2016(Achoki et al., 2019). Out of this,
men accounted for 50% while the rest were women. The projections put the live birth rate at
5000 births daily while the mortality rate was 1200 deaths each day. Due to increase in
population, there will a likely reduction in the number of workforces in healthcare workers thus
increasing the demand for the health workforce(Muga, Kizito, Mbayah, & Gakuruh, 2018).
Kenya has an average population of around 69 individuals per square kilometers, 70 years in
expected average lifespan and a fertility rate of 5.0. In addition to this, the crude birth rate is put
at 35.8.