President William Ruto has challenged the Kenya Health Human Resource Advisory Council to resolve issues affecting health professionals in the country.

The President said the Council whose mandate is to review policy and establish norms and standards for health workers, should ensure health professionals are happy and productive.

The council will be chaired by Dr Francis Wafula, a lecture at Strathmore University, and comprise representatives from the National Government, counties, and training institutions.

The President spoke on Monday at State House, Nairobi, when he inaugurated the council, which he said was the result of extensive consultations between the National and County governments.

“Inadequate cosultation between the two levels of government in the past prevented the operationalisation of the council affecting effective delivery of health services.”

The advisory council will handle the posting of interns to National and County governments’ health facilities, inter-county transfer of health professionals, and transfers from one level of government to the other.

The Kenya Health Human Resource Advisory Council will also standardise the welfare and schemes of service for health professionals and manage the rotation of specialist doctors to enhance effective service delivery across the country.

It will also maintain a master register for all health practitioners in the counties.

The President said the Council will also address issues of training of staff in the counties.

“The National Government pays for training of health professionals, while counties continue to pay their salaries and can’t replace them when on training. These are some of the issues the advisory council will deal with,” President Ruto said.

Council of Governors Chair Anne Waiguru said the advisory council’s composition has been informed by the constitutional roles the two levels of government have in the provision of health services.