Abstract:
The County Governments in Kenya are faced with poor service delivery especially in the provision of maternal health care services. Maternal health care services in public hospitals are not meeting up to the quality standard as outlined by the Ministry of Health in Kenya. The paper sought to determine the influence of leadership and universal health coverage on public health maternal health care in Kitui County. This study was guided by Transformational Leadership Theory and Theory X & Y. The study focused on 11 public hospitals providing maternity services in Kitui County. The target population of the study was 203 health officers that include 26 doctors, 10 specialists, 41 clinical officers and 126 nurses across the 13 level 4 hospitals providing maternity services in Kitui County. Data was collected by use of structured closed ended questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS Version 25.0 Software. Pearson Correlation showed that leadership and universal health coverage have a positive correlation with public health maternal health care service delivery. Model summary results indicated that leadership and universal health coverage explain 52.1 percent of public health maternal health care service delivery. Coefficient regression revealed that coefficient of leadership has appositive and significant influence (?=.203, p=.001<0.05) on and public health maternal health care service delivery. It was also found that coefficient of Universal Health Coverage and public health maternal health care service delivery have a positive and significant relationship (?=.662, p=.000<0.05). The study concludes that leadership is one of the key health systems factors affecting the performance of maternal health services at facility level. Conclusion can be made further that universal health coverage improves public health maternal health care service delivery. The study recommends for the need of maternal health care providers to review their leadership guidelines and styles with aim of enhancing quality of leadership in the management of hospitals. Though universal health coverage is on trial, the study recommends for the need to adequately support the implementation of universal health coverage.
