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{
"id": 22786,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/22786/?format=api",
"text_counter": 166,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Prof. Anyang-Nyong’o",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Medical Services",
"speaker": {
"id": 193,
"legal_name": "Peter Anyang' Nyong'o",
"slug": "peter-nyongo"
},
"content": " Mr. Speaker. Sir, this has been the practice in the House all these years. I am happy for making that clarification to the hon. Member. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I do not want to bore the House with the kind of gains the Ministry has made. However, I am trying to give the kind of background information; that is, building a case for the tremendous shortfalls in the Ministry which the Members of the House should appreciate and which the Government should look for ways and means of bridging. Many of the gains that I have talked about are due to improved health service delivery among other interventions. If these gains can be sustained, Kenya could be on track to attaining the under five and infant mortality millennium development goal by 2015. There is need, therefore, to continue investing in human resource for health commodities and infrastructure to improve accessibility and quality of services while sustaining targeted interventions that have demonstrated positive impact in Kenya. The situation as we have it today is that there is tremendous increase of the burden of disease in our nation. Apart from the burden that is caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic which causes other maladies in its track, we need to look at other diseases that have afflicted many nations, including Kenya in this century. The HIV/AIDS pandemic causes tuberculosis and, because of misuse of drugs or lack of drugs therein, drug resistant tuberculosis which consequently costs tremendous resources to deal with. The Ministry has revised guidelines to provide for initiation of Anti-Retro-Viral (ARV) treatment to eligible persons at CD 4 count of 350 or less to enhance survival rate compared to the earlier treatment regiment which was initiating ARV to eligible persons of CD4 count of less than 250. This means that we are now putting more people on treatment early which will contribute significantly to reaction morbidity, disease progression and mortality associated with HIV/AIDS. My Ministry will continue to support campaigns that seek to mobilize more Kenyans to be tested for the HIV/AIDS scourge. In spite of that, given resources of the Global Fund, only 400,000 out of 1.2 million Kenyans are on ARVs. The remaining 800,000 are still looking for solace by us providing adequate ARVs or any other form of help that could prolong and sustain their lives. Therefore, there is a huge shortfall in terms of treatment and care for HIV positive patients. That is just one. Secondly, if we go into the area of non-communicable diseases which as you know has been in the media for now quite some time, is on the increase. The trouble with non-communicable diseases such as cancer is that we may not know that we have been visited by it until it is too late. What is important is to improve and increase diagnostic services and testing services so that Kenyans can know their state of health early enough for effective treatment intervention to help and preserve their lives. The House, therefore, should take this very seriously because these are the kinds of ailments that often strike without care of social status. They can strike anybody of any social status. The youth have not been spared either. I wish to remind the House that the non-communicable diseases situation in the country requires our collective and sustained attention. The Ministry’s current efforts include, among other things, initiation of the National Diabetes Hypertension Control, the National Cancer Control Programme, the National Cancer Strategy that was launched a few weeks ago, a draft Bill on cancer that has been developed and which is coming to this House, an Alcohol and Drug Abuse programme, including rehabilitation of drug addicts, at the Coast Provincial Government Hospital. However, it should be noted that non-communicable diseases are very expensive to treat while the medical equipment for treatment for the complications is extremely expensive. Further, there are very few specialists for non-communicable diseases in our country today. For example, for a population of 40 million Kenyans, we have in the public sector, only five oncologists. These are cancer specialists. Along with that, we have a few cancer nurses. Not to mention the fact that even for dialysis and kidney programmes, we have very few nephrologists and renal nurses in this country. The Kenyatta National Hospital has an initiative of training renal nurses. At the moment, we are capable of giving dialysis services at the Coast General Hospital, Nakuru Provincial Government Hospital, Nyeri Provincial Government Hospital, Kisumu New Nyanza General Hospital, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospitals and Kenyatta National Hospital. That is not enough. We need to have renal services in all our district hospitals to keep pace with the incidents of kidney problems in our country and at a cost that our people can afford. Mr. Speaker, Sir, my Ministry is implementing flagship projects and reforms to meet the objectives of Vision 2030 as well as the Ministry’s objectives in order to improve the effectiveness of the health system. These initiatives include among other things, improvement in infrastructure including rehabilitation of health centres, provision of equipment, laboratory development and equipping and developing reproductive health facilities among other things. Some of the projects are completed and others still continue to be implemented. We hope that by the end of the next financial year, we should have, at least, 25 fully rehabilitated district hospitals. That will leave close to 250 district hospitals which will still need proper rehabilitation to meet modern standards. It means, therefore, that when I come to the shortfalls, the House will not be surprised that our Ministry needs close to Kshs75 billion to Kshs80 billion in the next five years to meet the requests and demands of Kenyans for proper healthcare in line with the Constitution."
}