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"id": 392420,
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"content": "this country who work here. About 60 per cent of our doctors are in South Africa, the United Kingdom (UK), Canada, America, Botswana and Namibia. They are serving those countries. You know very well the slogan of the doctors who are here; “ Mheshimiwa Sonko” and “ Dokta msoto.” Those are the arguments they had. “ Mheshimiwa Sonko” is not Sen. Mbuvi Sonko, but it is the Swahili words meaning “w aheshimiwas are rich. Most of them might not be as much educated as the doctors. It is sad that the highly educated doctors are poor. They are dissatisfied and demoralized. What happens? While they work as civil servants in the Government hospitals, they also have side clinics in order to make ends meet. This is far from what really a doctor should do. They are supposed to focus on their training. I remember as a young doctor after I finished my studies many years ago, I had a lot of vigour to serve the people. In fact, I had committed myself to the service of this nation. The first thing that hit me hard, apart from the salary, was the poor facilities in our hospitals. The patient had to come with a small exercise book because the stationery in the hospital was not there. So, for you to even write something, the patient had to go to the nearest kiosk to get these exercise books. We had to use these exercise books to write prescription for the patients. When you wanted to do a malaria slide, the patient had to go to the lab in town. After that, if you had to examine this patient, he had to buy gloves or whatever else that was required to examine him. Therefore, by the time you arrive on this diagnosis, you are so demoralized. Finally, you prescribe some medicine. He had to buy them from a chemist in town. Therefore, those days, it was very frustrating to the doctors. I am sure the situation may have changed just minimally. In addition to that, the salary was meager. While I was in the medical school, my room was facing the roundabout at the City Mortuary. I would see vehicles moving up and down, then I would tell myself that when I complete my studies, I will never drive a Datsun 120Y. I will only buy Peugeot 504 or a bigger vehicle. However, when I came out, I was shocked to learn that I would be earning Kshs5,200 per month. I decided to be queuing with the watchmen at the cash office to get my salary. I never took it to the bank. We were frustrated as young doctors. This led to a lot of brain drain. Many doctors found themselves in countries abroad. Therefore, you will find that even if you upgrade a district hospital, you will not be able to staff it with specialists. Now, the new Constitution has devolved health services 100 per cent. This means that the referral hospitals which were in one district and which were then referred to as provincial hospitals, were serving a lot of other districts around them. The ownership is now going back to the counties. This means that every county will now have to struggle to upgrade their hospitals to a referral facility. Where will the specialists come from? You can change the infrastructure. You can change the building, but can you build the theatre, the maternity wing and the lab? Of course, maybe, you can accomplish that with difficulties of funding too. But even if you do so, where will you get the specialists, for example, the gynecologists and the surgeons? A lot of counties are developing Medical Training Centres (MTCs) attached to these facilities. Where will you get the The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}