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{
    "id": 392688,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/392688/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 218,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "doctor who is my age mate. He is a friend, a gynecologist, a very well trained one. When he is at the hospital, he acts as a general surgeon because there is no one else there. So, when there is an accident, he has to be the one to deal with it. He also deals with deliveries and any other problems that come his way. Although that has given him a lot of experience and has made him a jack of all trades, it is not good for the patient. We should insist that every hospital in the county has a several doctors. One should be a surgeon, the other a physician and another one should be an eye specialist. Another problem that we do not look at seriously is tooth problems. We have very few dentists in our hospitals. I do not know whether you have had a tooth problem. You cannot sleep and your ears make noise among other things. My younger brother is a diploma holder in the dental sector. When he comes home, he puts up a board at the gate to say; “the doctor is now available.” Therefore, it is very important that we deal with some of these diseases at home rather than in hospitals. I have seen your data here and most it seem to suggest that the biggest problem in these hospitals that you visited is actually respiratory problems. I saw that respiratory problems are at 50+ per cent. In fact in Chebiemit District Hospital, you said that the ten causes of morbidity and mortality, and I assume that morbidity means being admitted, the respiratory problems are at 51 per cent, then diarrhea 1 per cent and clinical malaria 6 per cent. If you say that malaria is 6 per cent, I know as a fact that malaria, if dealt with at the community level, you do not need to go to the dispensary, that is, if there was intervention at the village. This is the same with diarrhea; if there is medicine and there is somebody who is trained for a few days on how to administer some of these things, there would be no need for admission. With respiratory problems, unless they become very serious, you really do not need to go to hospital. So, if we dealt with some of these issues at home, the only people who will be going to these level 4 hospitals and actually sleeping there, seeking for help of a specialized nature will be people with accidents and people with serious ailments like diabetes, heart problems, cancer and so on. I think that is what public health was all about; where we can intervene at the village level so that we do not get so many people in the hospital which costs the Government a lot of money. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other thing that I wanted to refer to is that in most cases, people would not reach the level where they have to be taken to referral hospitals if they got help close home. I know of a programme which is now running in Homa Bay where they are training community leaders on health matters albeit rudimentarily. That is dealing with these things at the Nyumba Kumi level, because I heard them talk of only ten or twenty homes. I know that one of the problems is pregnancy because most mothers do not go for prenatal and post-natal examination and they give birth at home. We have so many deaths especially in my county. In fact, I think I am leading in the statistics. Next time you go out, go to Homa Bay and do some little research. Take note of maternal deaths during births. The figures are alarming when you compare them against the national average. The figures are also alarming for child mortality for children below the age of five years. There must be something wrong because we need a lot of intervention at that level so that mothers can accept that they can go to medical centres for delivery or even for follow up. 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."
}