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{
    "id": 383836,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/383836/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 20,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "June 19, 2013 SENATE DEBATES 3 Sen. (Prof.) Anyang’-Nyong’o",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you very much, Madam Temporary Speaker. I would like to support this Motion and congratulate my colleague, Sen. (Dr.) Wilfred Machage, for bringing it to the House. I support it for the following reasons. Before I left the Ministry of Medical Services, I had actually proposed to the Cabinet that we establish 22 referral hospitals across the nation to add to those which already exist. Indeed, what we are going to have ensures that every county has a referral facility. This is because under my watch we tried to improve certain heavy volume district hospitals like Kericho, Kisii, Kitale, Bungoma, Meru and many other towns. But the cost of improving these hospitals to the level that they can become effective referral facilities is quite substantial. The current Constitution envisages that Level 5 hospitals downwards will be handled by the county. But those resources put under disposal of the counties to ensure that these hospitals really become viable referral facilities are currently very low if you consider the battle over the Division of Revenue Bill. Therefore, the nation must decide whether we are going to devolve these hospitals to the counties without ensuring that they perform or work responsively and effectively or we are going to capacitate these hospitals before we leave them in the hands of the counties. This is a very important question. What Sen. Machage has brought to the House is extremely important. Madam Temporary Speaker, further, we did do a baseline survey and found that if we are going to upgrade our facilities to modern standards, to deliver healthcare effectively, we need Kshs85 billion every year for five continuous years to improve our facilities, purely in terms of infrastructure and capital, leave alone training. This is because hospitals are not just buildings and equipment, but training institutions. With the onset of non-communicable diseases, increasing exponentially and given the cost of treating non-communicable diseases, both in terms of medical expertise and equipment, we have an extremely important responsibility in the health sector. I think that when this Motion is brought here, it should be passed by this House. But subsequently, this House, probably, through the Committee on Health, should pursue the implementation of this Motion very systematically. We must ensure that in the final analysis, we do something realistic to alleviate the health problems of our people in this nation. Madam Temporary Speaker, with those few words, I beg to support this Motion and thank Sen. (Dr.) Machage for bringing it to the House."
}