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"content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, just last year, this House passed a Motion urging county governments to come up with ways to ensure that everything they are dealing with – including even their accounting systems – that they must use the internet and modern technology, like the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), and all that. That means that if we can move towards that direction, first, accountability and transparency will be achieved. When today you go to Gertrude’s Garden Children Hospital, for example, you will find that they now just use computers. You do not need to even ask a question when you go there because your name is already there. The system will show when last you were in the hospital and what disease you had. The doctor on the other side is also able to look at the same information as he or she attends to you. We are, therefore, also urging that within the referral hospitals, we would wish to see a connectivity where if, indeed, I am a patient at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), they are able to connect with a hospital in Nyanza where we have the referral facility such that when I just go with my appointment card, my last treatment from KNH can be displayed in Nyanza. This happens in Namibia and the person who did it there is our brother from Kisii, who has managed the Government hospital there and it is doing so well. Today, I know that Nairobi Hospital is also trying; that if you go to any Nairobi Hospital branch outside the main hospital, you will get your information very clearly. But we are saying that we want to see this happening in our Government facilities. Madam Temporary Speaker, three years ago, I remember that people were urging KNH to start. Now that we have counties; and we know that we passed the Division of Revenue Bill, we have requested to see if the Government will agree to give more money – the Kshs3.7 billion – for referral hospitals and now we are going with negotiations. I just hope that the National Assembly will look at this country beyond just thinking about the money, but that it will look at what we really want for our referral hospitals. When we are requesting for this money, what did we have in mind? I believe we had in mind the sense of good service for Kenyans. For example, if any parent goes for treatment every day or every month at a clinic at the KNH, he or she is able to go back home in one of those referral hospitals and be treated there without having to spend a lot of money on transport and accommodation here in Nairobi. Some of these patients have to come to Nairobi, spend the night here, see the doctor and go back home again. But if we can use the modern technology like the fibre optic cable which is running all over these counties, it means we have made the counties a village. Which means that even when a doctor is in another county with some challenges, he just needs to call his colleagues elsewhere and tell him: “I have a challenge with this patient, could you kindly assist?” and they can even do teleconferencing. We have doctors who come from the USA, Canada and even from London, and they normally work very closely with the Government hospitals. Today, indeed, we can communicate with those doctors and our lecturers using computers. Therefore, we are talking about human life and we hope that one day in this country, some of those who sometimes object to some of the ideas that people bring in, they will see broadly that with some of these things, we must move with the times. That, today, when we hear that Kenyans have become tourists going to India, and it is because of the technology; that, indeed, when they arrive in India, the doctor will diagnose your 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."
}