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{
    "id": 1021660,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1021660/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 236,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kwanza, FORD-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ferdinand Wanyonyi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2065,
        "legal_name": "Ferdinard Kevin Wanyonyi",
        "slug": "ferdinard-kevin-wanyonyi"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. My contribution will basically be on the objective of this particular Bill. The objective of the Bill is to give a guideline for referral cases, which is important. I want to thank Hon. Mishra for coming up with this Bill to have regulations that will guide cases that are referred to other places like South Africa, UK and India. I had a chance to go to India in 2016 on a different issue with the Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock. I had a chance to visit one of the hospitals and I found four Kenyans in that hospital. That year, there was a friend of mine who worked at the Kenya Embassy in India. When I went there, I was shocked that the Embassy was not aware that the patient I found in the hospital was in India getting treatment. There was somebody who was looking after that patient. Unfortunately, because the patient was referred to India when she was at an advanced stage, she passed on. I did not know the patient, but she happened to be from my county of Trans Nzoia. As usual we had to fundraise, but getting the body of the deceased to Kenya was another issue. Therefore, the essence of this Bill is that when patients are referred to those countries, be it India or South Africa, the embassies should know and fast-track their treatment there. The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should work with the embassies to know what is happening. We have cases where a patient, for example, goes to India and… I have heard Members here say there are no cartels! I know there are fellows who are doctors and all they have is a link in India and they are the ones who refer patients to India. With advanced technology, we have virtual treatment. I saw that in Kitale. One of the patients in my constituency had cancer of the blood and the doctor managed to treat the patient with another doctor in India virtually using technology. He was told what to do and it worked. So, this Bill should be fast-tracked. I want to thank you hon. Member for having brought it. We can move faster for the Bill to be actualized. If anybody is referred to another country for treatment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through our embassy in the country and the Ministry of Health through Kenyatta National hospital should know, so that we remove the cartels that have been punishing our people. This is not news. I do not know why Members have been saying other things. It is not news; it is true. Doctors who may not be specialists in an area have links with other fellows who have been doing those things. Let us fast-track and actualize this Bill which was lacking. For us to be able to do this, we should know the details. Some of the equipment can be found here. Kenyatta National Hospital, Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital and the Nairobi Hospital are well equipped. The personnel here are quite skilled. I remember listening to Dr. Pukose and I agree with him. Our doctors here are quite skilled. They are even better than some of the people that they are referring to in India. Therefore, the best we can do is to encourage them. Of course, most of them demand so much, but it is better to pay a local doctor here than pay three times a doctor overseas and you lose the patient. Kenya’s African culture has it that you cannot bury the dead outside the country. We have to do all we can to bring the body back here for us to take two or three days to bury the person who died outside the country. Let us have as a policy to know the details. If you are referring a patient to, for example, South Africa, what equipment is there and what personnel do they have that we do not have here? That The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}