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"id": 211583,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Muturi",
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"speaker": {
"id": 215,
"legal_name": "Justin Bedan Njoka Muturi",
"slug": "justin-muturi"
},
"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, you will appreciate that it was not a point of information. I think Mr. M. Y. Haji wanted to make his contribution. I think he will be telling us that we should bury our dead people immediately like the Muslims do. But I believe that even Muslims who lose their loved ones and incur debts would still find themselves in similar problems like the rest of Kenyans. That is because mortuary fees or other hospital fees are matters that are tenant to sickness resulting in admission in health facilities. Even regarding hospital fees, I have seen Kenyans who come to plead with me, especially now during the registration of voters, telling me: \"I cannot register as a voter because my identity card is held in this and this hospital!\" That is incredible. How would a hospital hold an ID card of a July 31, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2847 patient? You are holding an ID card to do what? I have advised them to report to the police that it is lost and to take another one. Those people got new ID cards and registered as voters. But do we need to go to that length? If you find a fellow who is not able to give you even a title deed or another valuable item--- But they are able to surrender to you their national ID cards. You know very well that you are dealing with extremely desperate cases. As we address the issue of fees chargeable in various health facilities, I would wish to appeal that, perhaps, some policy guidelines need to be issued. We are not saying that they should not charge some little fees. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, however, I think that in appropriate cases, there is need for some policy guideline to be issued that will result into less suffering to those who have lost their loved ones and friends or those who have been treated and discharged, but cannot leave hospital without paying the fees. It actually surprises me, when you hold a person who was sick in hospital, say, for instance, a mother who had been admitted to a hospital with a sick child. After treatment, the mother is not able to pay the fees and you cannot release them. So, as a hospital, they must feed both the mother and the child thereby incurring more costs. It is a dire situation and I would want to urge the Minister to look at it from a policy position and issue some guidelines. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, sometimes I get a bit surprised when I deal with the issue of Hospital Management Boards (HMBs), both at the district level and with regard to various hospital facilities. When we ask Questions in this House, we are always given the answers that we, hon. Members, are involved. However, in most cases, I have heard hon. Members complain that they were not aware that the Boards were ever constituted. This is a worrying trend. I think if those Boards are meant to have some semblance of representation within their areas of jurisdiction, it is important that the leadership of those districts be involved in their appointments and/or nomination. Once the names have been forwarded, it takes another long period before they are gazetted. We want the Ministry to pull up its socks. We do not want to come here to ask Questions about when the Boards will be gazetted. It should be a matter of routine because if they were properly vetted, then they should be gazetted immediately so that they begin the work for which they were appointed or nominated to those Boards. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also noticed that sometime back some guidelines were issued on how HMBs are supposed to be run. In a number of cases that I have witnessed, those guidelines are sometimes not always adhered to, particularly by the health personnel manning various hospitals. Indeed, I think there is an area--- Some of the monies that go to health facilities, doctors do not want the HMBs or committees to know how much it is. They would rather that the HMBs only deal with the cost- sharing money. When you read through those guidelines, you will find that the HMBs are supposed to know about every expenditure or receipts to the hospitals that they are appointed to run. So, there is need that the doctors and others are made to understand that they are supposed to complement each other and not to fight amongst themselves."
}