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{
"id": 1144737,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1144737/?format=api",
"text_counter": 256,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Martin Owino (",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, a second national health strategy, namely, the plan for 2005–2010, set out a new approach to health service delivery that emphasise on activities of promoting individual as well as community health to prevent diseases. The Kenya Primary Healthcare Strategy Framework 2019-2024 further promotes the use of community-based primary healthcare. Additionally, the third edition of the community half strategy, namely, 2020-2025, provides a framework for building the capacity of households to know and progressively realise equitable good quality healthcare and services. This ensures that all of us, throughout the country, have self-care; health-seeking behaviour. That means going to a hospital or to a healthcare facility to be checked-up even when there is nothing wrong. This attitude is developed at a household level where community health workers play a greater role to motivate people. You will not self- medicate because you will have to go to the hospital. Those in prenatal care have to visit four times before they deliver. All the important decisions are made in the household and, therefore, motivated community health workers will be a very useful tool. Access to comprehensive quality health care services is important for promoting and maintaining health, preventing and managing diseases, reducing unnecessary disabilities and premature deaths, and achieving health equity for all Kenyans. I am emphasising that the need to uphold this Bill and pass it, so that the ratio between those who provide health care and patients is wide in all health cadres. For example, the WHO recommends that we have one doctor to a thousand people. Here, we still have one doctor to over 16,000 people. This is not possible. The ratio of nurses here is 1:970 and the WHO recommendation 250 to bridge the gap. We are not alone, but this is global in the health care system. We have 7.2 million and what is expected in 2030 is 18 million. So, we are not alone in this. It depends on how each country designs and executes their health delivery system. There is lack of personnel even in our rural setting. Most of you represent rural folks. We have two nurses in a facility and if one goes on training, only one is left. If something happens to the remaining nurse, the clinic is closed. The person who is available in the community 24/7 is a community health worker. I can testify that when I was in Homa Bay, most of the Pneumonia and complicated Malaria cases were treated at home because the community health workers were trained and equipped by UNICEF. In a scenario where we are unable to reach the personnel as much we can, community health workers fill the gap. If that happens and they are motivated, we will reduce disease progression, increase self-care, early detection of diseases and reduce our tertiary care. Consequently, we will have minimal admissions because most of the condition and ailments would have been dealt with primarily at the local level. Most of our people now get tertiary healthcare at Level 3 or 4 hospitals when they are almost done. We talk of diabetes when organs are failing. We talk of blood pressure and some people end up with stroke. Without the community health workers’ intervention, diseases, which are at the primary level, costs the healthcare industry a lot of money. I am happy to report that we have about 9,132 community health units today. However, we still have a shortage of 420, which should be set up. We have 89,670 community health workers. However, we still have 5,400 to go so that we can have a complete army to address the community health units. The body that will help us to do all this is the council, which we are promoting and initiating here."
}