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{
    "id": 469084,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/469084/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 115,
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    "content": "many people beyond the counties so that these hospitals are run by the counties when they are expected to produce resources. Today, when were having a discussion with the Treasury Secretary, he said something that I have to interrogate. He said that as a national government and as it is constitutionally provided, they will only raise resources for the two national facilities. They shall, however, unconditionally, give the counties some money to deal with the heavy volume hospitals, Level Fours and Fives which they have already identified. What about the others? Last year, when I was the Minister for Medical Services under the previous Government, we framed a Bill to make 22 hospitals, nationally, referral facilities because of the amount of work they handle. If the Treasury will only support certain counties that hold 11 hospitals, what about the other 11? What about the other counties that will not get money to support the other 11? Where will they get money from? Let me give a solution. I will bring to the Senate a Bill, to define more robustly what referral hospitals are and, therefore, to make it possible for the Treasury to provide money for them so that the counties where they are do not need to have money for them or when they have money, the money is given conditionally. When you look at the Kshs3.5 billion provided to the so-called referral hospitals, you will see that in reality, it is not enough. Health, usually, in all the Budgets since Independence, has always been relegated to the third, fourth and fifth categories of priorities. As human beings, issues of health come first. One of the reasons we have a high mortality rate, as Dr. Khalwale will confirm, is because we have never learnt to prioritise our health properly, both as a Government and as individuals. On an individual level, this is another issue. Nonetheless, now that we have a Senate that looks after concerns of counties where livelihoods are and where production takes place primarily, I think it is our responsibility to prioritise health in this Budget and in subsequent budgets. In this budget, we may not do a very good job. First, this is so because we are all still on a learning curve. The Treasury and the county governments are on learning curves. We are also on learning curves. Each one of us will talk about this particular Bill with the little knowledge we have about budget making and how these figures were arrived at. It would require, if we must talk about this budget, much more details to understand how it relates to the Constitution and how it will eventually resolve itself into an Appropriation Authority. However, since this is the first Bill of its kind we are handling under this new constitutional dispensation, let us open ourselves to the possibility that we may not do our best."
}