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{
    "id": 1338158,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1338158/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 235,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I beg to move that the Facilities Improvement Financing Bill, 2023, (Senate Bill No.43 of 2023) be now read a Second Time. This is one of the four amendment Bills that both the Houses of Parliament have considered. This is one of the two Bills that emanated from the Senate. As Members are aware, most of our public facilities lack financial autonomy and facility financial management. This has led to increasing fragmentation of health facilities, poor service delivery, decreased efficiency, lack of financial risk protection, transparency and accountability in our county and referral hospitals. Therefore, this Bill seeks to cure those problems by providing financial and managerial autonomy and accountability to improve decision-making and increase efficiency in our sub- county and ward-level facilities to the national referral hospitals. This Bill also aims to stimulate increased revenue collection by public health facilities, significantly contributing to the realisation of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) target on expenditure on healthcare infrastructure throughout the country. With the enactment and possible approval of this Bill, the healthcare facilities from the village dispensaries will not only enjoy financial and managerial autonomy, but they will also have a stimulated sense of revenue collection. They will also retain part of the revenue they generate to enable them to provide efficient services to the people they serve. This Bill also ring-fences money that is generated by public health facilities, ensuring a predictable, regular and steady source of funding for public health facility operations in counties. The problem that has bedevilled many of our healthcare facilities, especially Level 2 and Level 3 health centres … Most of those facilities charge user fees and consultation fees, but all that money has been going to the county revenue accounts and not back to those facilities. The enactment of this Bill will see to it that, that money will be ring-fenced. Part of the revenue generated will be retained at the local level to purchase medical and pharmaceutical equipment. This will improve service delivery at the local level because facilities will not have to wait for county governments to send them money to buy basic items like bandages or cleaning equipment. Hon. Speaker, you recall that during the COVID-19 period, many facilities in our local areas could not even access gloves and face masks for the first respondent officers who were exposed to the pandemic. The enactment of this Bill will ensure that the accounting officers will use the monies retained by those medical facilities to procure whatever they need. Ultimately, UHC will become a reality, and our people will have access to affordable health services. The other object of this Bill is to provide an efficient, secure and accountable mechanism for collecting, retaining and managing revenue derived from health services that are rendered at public health facilities in Kenya. I do not need to over-emphasise that. The facilities will now manage the revenue at the local level. It will also establish a governance framework to facilitate effective planning, coordination, mobilisation and access to public health facilities improvement financing in 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."
}