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{
    "id": 1237885,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1237885/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 202,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kamukunji, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Yusuf Hassan",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 398,
        "legal_name": "Yusuf Hassan Abdi",
        "slug": "yusuf-hassan-abdi"
    },
    "content": "personnel and practitioners nationally. That is an issue that this House can address by providing more funding. By passing this amendment, we are going to create a new layer of bureaucracy and corruption, which will create a cumbersome process that will slow down and cripple the normal work of medical practitioners. That can lead to delays and bottlenecks which can make life even more difficult for a patient and their family. The bureaucracy that we are trying to put in place through this amendment will put lives at risk and lead to unnecessary deaths of many patients. Therefore, we should reconsider the Bill. The amendment is trying to address an issue that requires a much stronger intervention in improving health services and providing more money. Creating another bureaucratic layer is only going to make it more difficult when in a situation of life and death. When you are taking a loved one to hospital, you want him or her to get the best treatment possible. Because public health facilities cannot cope, there are many private health facilities in the country. In Kenya, because of misguided policies, almost all the good health services have been privatised. Ordinary poor people—rural people and the urban poor—cannot access private health facilities. They cannot afford medicine in private facilities. The discussion in the House provides us with an opportunity to re-think what kind of health services we want. Even the most advanced countries in the world have affordable public health services – and in fact, free in some countries. The British National Health Service (NHS) and all European countries have heavily subsidised public health services of good quality. We are a developing country with a large number of very poor people. If we cannot finance and improve health services, many poor people are likely to die of diseases that can be prevented or cured. This amendment should jolt our minds to make sure that we look at alternative ways other than regulation. Some of the problems that have been raised by the amendment can be cured through internal mechanisms. Kenya medical services have professionals and professional institutions. Medical practices at universities and medical centres can incorporate stronger ethical practices that can overcome some of the problems that have informed this amendment to the House. This amendment is trying to overcome many of our national problems, which is purely firefighting. It cannot resolve the bigger problem which is about the mindset and culture and everything related to them. The bottom-line is that our infrastructure is not good enough. Our medical services are not good enough. Our health services are not financed enough. We have a serious shortage of professionals. And many good professionals, because of poor wages, opt to go and work outside the country. Our nurses have been recruited in foreign countries. Our doctors are going to foreign countries. What we need to do is to give them good terms of references and good salaries so that they can stay in this country and provide the services required. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I oppose this amendment and support the decision of the Departmental Committee on Health. Thank you."
}