Turkana: At least 15 healthcare workers from Turkana County have been equipped with new reporting tools designed to transform the way eye care outcomes are documented and audited. Drawn from eye care, pharmacy, clinical services, nursing, health records, and information units, the officers will now generate more reliable and inclusive data to strengthen eye health services across Turkana Central, Turkana West, Loima, Lokichoggio, and Turkana East.
According to Kenya News Agency, the three-day training, supported by Sightsavers, focused on two specialized Eye Health Data tools that will boost confidence among health workers, improve data quality, and enhance evidence-based planning. By sharpening documentation and reporting skills, the initiative aims to advance the county's efforts in combating avoidable blindness and accelerating the elimination of trachoma by 2027.
The Director of Policy Planning Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation, James Lobokan, articulated that the county has prioritized strengthening preventive measures such as handwashing and water access as vital actionable strategies that will enhance elimination of trachoma in Turkana. "Health workers should provide accurate and quality data that is transparent and accountable. This will inform senior health management on areas to support and improve," he said.
He emphasized the importance of quality data management as it will enhance capacity building for healthcare workers in terms of planning, commodity management, and financing. The Director Public Health, Ismael Ekaran, mentioned that the increased technical interventions will ensure accurate, quality, and evidence-generated data crucial for enabling early detection and strengthening of the overall health information system.
"Through this intensified support, our health workers will be able to understand what to report, how to report, through which channel, ultimately improving access to care and reducing the burden of avoidable blindness," he said. The County Ophthalmic Services Coordinator, Samson Lokele, attributed undocumented data for cataracts and refractive errors as the most common causes of eye defects. "I am pledging for support to harmonize resources to support WASH interventions on Trachoma," he said.
He added that the county is currently developing a five-year County Trachoma Transition Strategy that will pledge to support eye health with a goal to improve and regulate eye-care outcomes to eliminate trachoma by 2027. The National Eye Health Section official, Milcah Kubai, outlined several reporting tools utilized to input data to the Kenya Health Information System (KHIS). "We were training them on how to fill and enter accurate and evidence-based data into the cataract surgery and outcome monitoring report," she stated that this will be important in auditing eye care outcomes.
The training was cemented by the appointment of several key coordinators critical in harmonizing strategic interventions towards eradicating Trachoma in Turkana. The meeting brought together several directors and program officers from Community Health Services, Preventive and Promotive, Water Services, and Public Health Officers, Eye care Services, Neglected Tropical Diseases, One Health, County Health Records and Information Management and WASH.