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{
    "id": 379156,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/379156/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 144,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Anyang’-Nyong’o",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 193,
        "legal_name": "Peter Anyang' Nyong'o",
        "slug": "peter-nyongo"
    },
    "content": "You will remember when we were debating issues of the Constitution during the Tenth Parliament, one of the issues that were proposed was the establishment of a national health commission which health professionals were calling for in a long time. When this was not put in the Constitution, I tried to move an amendment to establish a National Health Commission as a constitutional body. Unfortunately, all the amendments to the Constitution were disallowed by the then Parliament. Subsequent attempts to pass an amendment to establish the National Health Commission have still not succeeded. These are things that the National Health Commission could have done. I think Sen. Mukite is trying to fill a very important vacuum. As she has said, the Pharmacists and Poisons Board and the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board are national regulatory agencies which try to deal with these issues. However, as we have known and seen recently, the first case to be punished by the KMPDB was dealt with this year. When I was the Minister for Medical Services, I do not remember any case that this Board took concrete action on due to malpractice. One reason is because quite often, the complainants are not sure what the procedures are, or the cases are reported late. The doctors involved also corroborate and evidence is not given either clearly on the side of the complainant or on the medical practitioners. So, the procedure for complaining at the national level has been left wanting, to say the least. The aim of devolution is to devolve services to the people. One of the services to be devolved which is very important is a service that is carried out by the KMPDB. I think Sen. Catherine Mukite is quite right that the issue of misdiagnosis is a major one in the health profession. I will give you an example of something I left the health professionals dealing with after I initiated a Cancer Foundation. These are the guidelines for diagnosis and care for cancer patients. Cancer is an extremely devastating disease, but the problem is that when people go to dispensaries and health centres to report their cases, their symptoms are not easily diagnosed by clinical officers. Nurses and clinical officers do not have a book to refer to that shows what happens when they are confronted by certain symptoms and whether the illness may be tuberculosis, pneumonia or stomach ailment. There should be a book giving guidelines just as we have for other pathologists at the moment. This would make it possible for clinical officers or nurses at a dispensary to know that they are dealing with a case of cancer which should be referred to a more authoritative level where it can be properly diagnosed. In a disease like cancer, there have not been proper guidelines and that is why there has been so much misdiagnosis in healthcare. Fortunately, now, the efforts are quite advanced under the chairmanship of Prof. Binya. We shall be having guidelines for diagnosing, treating and taking care of cancer in our Republic; because when you have wrong diagnosis, then, of course, you make wrong decisions. When you make wrong decisions, you end up making wrong prescriptions. When you make wrong prescriptions, you end up giving somebody medicine which does not treat them, but makes the case even more complicated."
}