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{
    "id": 1092203,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1092203/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 248,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Siaya CWR, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Christine Ombaka",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1007,
        "legal_name": "Christine Oduor Ombaka",
        "slug": "christine-oduor-ombaka"
    },
    "content": "If it gets lost, we lose. We will be contributing so much money and still we will not be getting that care that we need because there will be no funds. If you look at hospitals, they do not have resources. The doctors and nurses are so few. Even the equipment that they need is hardly there. The other day, we had a big tragedy in Siaya where people got burnt as a result of a fuel tanker accident that occurred at Malanga. I went to visit the sick in hospital. I must admit that the hospital is very clean, but the nurses and doctors were helpless. They did not have medicine. They did not have gloves. I do not know! How do we collect so much money from the NHIF and still not have services like those? Individuals contribute Kshs500 on a monthly basis but we still do not have basic things like gloves. I get heartbroken about this whole thing. Finally, Dr. James Nyikal has mentioned quite a number of diseases that will be taken care of, or services that will be provided when the NHIF is paid for. We have new diseases that keep on coming up. We will be adding them on the list of what the NHIF card can cover every now and then. As new diseases come up, we must be prepared to keep adding them on the list of the services that we will be receiving. Let us be flexible when it comes to the amount or areas that the NHIF can cover. How much is the maximum amount of money that can be spent on a sick person who is a member or is contributing to the NHIF? Can somebody or some young man who is very ill be treated in hospital and the NHIF covers the whole amount of the bill? That can even be Kshs1 million or Kshs2 million. How much is the NHIF card going to cover? I think those are some of the areas that we need to address. Lastly, it is about information, as my colleague has already mentioned. People are not aware of that card. They do not know its benefits. All that they know is that the public healthcare system is not efficient; that hospitals lack medicines, and that the entire system is poorly run. People have a wrong image about the hospitals that we have. We need to clean that image. We need to get rid of it and ensure that we do proper civic education and mobilisation. We must educate people that they cannot just be at home. Even if we do not have enough services in hospitals, there are still certain things that can be addressed very well. Let people have faith; that our health system can work and that they too, can visit hospitals and be treated. Let us also improve the image that we already have on the facilities that we have. Many people say: “You want me to go to that hospital where I am going to die?” Already, people have negative perceptions. They just think they are going to die and that they cannot benefit anything from there. Those are the areas we need to clean for us to start benefiting from the NHIF card. With those remarks, I support the Amendment Bill."
}