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{
    "id": 211388,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/211388/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 171,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. ole Metito",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Ministry of State for Youth Affairs",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 199,
        "legal_name": "Judah Katoo Ole-Metito",
        "slug": "judah-ole-metito"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I would also wish to express my sympathy to hon. Ojode and wish him quick recovery. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was talking about the process of registering and operationalizing a health facility. It has to be registered, gazetted. That is when, and only when, the Government can operationalize that facility. However, after taking that long route and getting the facility registered or gazetted, there are still no medical personnel to man those facilities. With regard to the already existing rural dispensaries, there needs to be very strict supervision in terms of administration. There are places where health facilities, say, the sub-district hospitals or district hospitals, are as far as 100 kilometres or more away from people. The nurses who are posted to the rural areas tend to neglect their duties. Most of them cannot work properly without strict supervision. The Ministry needs to tighten its supervision all over the country from district hospitals to rural dispensaries. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I commend the Ministry for the waiver of maternity fees. That is a welcome move. However, I would like to urge them to waive other fees. For instance, sometimes patients are retained in Government hospitals for a long time before they can settle their bills. Unfortunately, some pass on leaving behind very huge hospital bills to be settled by the family and 2930 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 1, 2007 as such it takes the family time to raise that money and get the deceased buried. At times, the Government should consider waiving such bills. That is the same case with mortuary bills. We find a body lying in a mortuary for even over a month just because the family is not able to settle hospital bills. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally, the Ministry needs to provide motor vehicles to medical facilities. They should not provide only the ambulances, which I know are very vital. Every district, sub-district hospitals and even health centres need ambulances. Besides that, the medical personnel like the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) in district hospitals need vehicles. Some of them lack vehicles to go round to supervise and monitor what is going on in the facilities under their jurisdiction. I have in mind the newly created districts. This Ministry should take into account the fact that there are new districts that ought to be autonomous or independent from their mother districts. The Ministry needs to equip those new district hospitals and health centres. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}