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{
    "id": 364757,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/364757/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 59,
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    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Last weekend, I was taken through four facilities in my constituency that have been built in the last three or four years, but that are not manned. I think this is the same case across the country. We must, as a country, start looking at health as an investment from which we get the best returns. I can tell you that the financial returns that we value are far much lower compared to the benefits of good health. In any case, how will you enjoy whatever material things you get if you are not in good health? The shortage of health manpower in this country is acute. Our population needs 77,000 nurses; in fact, we need about 96,000 nurses. If we look at the workload, we have 18,000 nurses for a population of about 40 million people. If you compare this with a country like Malaysia that not long ago was like us, you will find that they have 60,000 nurses to serve a population of 28 million people. We have no option but to allocate more money to this sector. If you look at the doctors, you will find that there are about 8,000 doctors in this country. How many are in the public sector? They are only 2,000, serving 99 per cent of the 40 million Kenyans. You can see the irony; only 2,000 doctors out of 8,000 doctors are serving 99 per cent of the population. What about the nurses? Many of our trained nurses, who are particularly the ones who are registered internationally, are out of this country. Similarly, doctors are out of this country. Some of you read in The Standard a few days ago about the doctors who work at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH). That story was true. This is the only sector where we have trained people working for free in the pretext that they are training. When you are training a prospective doctor, he is not sitting in class but he is actually treating or operating on people. We have convinced ourselves that because they are at the KNH and are students at the university because they are privately sponsored to the university, then they should work for free in the KNH. It is wrong by any standards. You cannot have somebody who is not being paid working round the clock and then taking their money and paying the university. I have discussed this elsewhere because it is something I have opposed for many years; I think that, perhaps, I am now in the right place to hit out. The same case applies to clinical officers. When they do internship, it is for free and sometimes they do not have a place to do it. We must start looking at our health workers as the most important workers. When you have money, what do you do with it? You can only enjoy it when you are in good health. Do you enjoy it when you are sick? I have told you that economists will tell you that the economy grows with an improvement in healthcare."
}