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"id": 392779,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Elachi",
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"legal_name": "Beatrice Elachi",
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"content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I rise to also support the Motion and thank the Chair of the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare. Madam Temporary Speaker, looking at page 13 of their Report, they have very serious recommendations in terms of the way forward. One of the issues is land and I think that it should be taken to the relevant Committee that deals with land. According to the Report, the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital has been unable to receive money because they have been having disputes on the land that it is built. Today we have a woman in the Ministry of Land, whom we all know and respect so much as the Cabinet Secretary. She is one person who works very effectively and, therefore, we need to take that opportunity and see her, so that we can help the hospital to have this land, indeed, under its name. Madam Temporary Speaker, the other recommendation is about the need to modernize the referral hospital. The Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital is the only hospital in the western region that works like Kenyatta National Hospital. I know the capacity that it takes in terms of all the counties that depend on it. So, we need to find ways of supporting it. I know that the Cabinet Secretary for Health is also looking at ways of ensuring, for example, that Kenyatta National Hospital, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and what used to be the Provincial hospitals digitize their records, so that if I am treated for diabetes at Kenyatta National Hospital, I can just walk into the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and they will be able to see my records. I know that the Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Macharia, is trying to come up with a system that will do that. In the last Government this was proposed and tendered for in Kenyatta National Hospital, but I do not know what happened. Madam Temporary Speaker, we need to rethink, as a Senate, about the issue of the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) card that Sen. Kajwang talked about. We need to look for better ways of putting up a system where, at least, every family in a county can have an NHIF card. We can do it even using the mobile phones. This is because as much as poverty has left our people with a lot of challenges, one of the things that families in Kenya have is a mobile phone. We can propose to work with corporate institutions and come up with a system where, for example, whenever I top-up my phone, Kshs5 will go to my NHIF account. Maybe we can pilot this in one county and see whether it can work, so that every family, at least, can have an NHIF card. That card will facilitate the treatment of those families. Madam Temporary Speaker, when we are talk about health, mostly we are talking about women and children because they are the majority of those who walk into those hospitals everyday. One of the challenges that Sen. Beth talked about that needs to be looked at by the national Government, is maternal mortality. Today there is a rise in cases of abortion. This is something that we need to address. Not all cases of abortion are voluntary. There are women in the rural areas who have either high blood pressure or malaria. Such women end up being told by doctors that they have to remove the baby to save their lives. I know that is one thing that many doctors – and even us – find it very 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."
}