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{
    "id": 498656,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/498656/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 346,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "November 5, 2014 SENATE DEBATES 42 Sen. Elachi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I also rise to support the Motion. Indeed, the health sector is a devolved function. The moment you devolve a function, bringing it back to the national Government becomes challenging. I know that this is a process that we started last year. We have had many challenges in agreeing with the practitioners. As we move on, I want to appreciate the counties. I know we have counties that are doing well in terms of building facilities. In this Senate, maybe we need to have a clear report on the status of health facilities in the counties. Having said that, we know that it has been a challenge for us to request the national Government to retain the remuneration of doctors at the national level. This is something that this House should follow up on. When we sit together, as Members of the different committees that are involved, the Committee of Devolved Government and the Committee on Health, this should be one of our proposals. I know that the health practitioners were challenging the way promotions are done, following up on pensions and how to ensure that they are still appreciated in the work that they do. We still have a challenge of doctors in terms of their numbers. We know that we have fewer doctors. The Senate should guide the country because this is the House that ensures that functions are devolved with the resources required. We have different challenges within the health sector. We have challenges facing clinical officers, nurses, doctors and the different skilled practitioners. As we move on, I know that our Government will ensure that we bring in critical facilities that will enable practitioners to have a better environment to work. However, as they do that, we urge the Government to ensure that their remuneration is taken care of so that we do not have different facilities in the country suffering. We also need to go beyond that and ask ourselves, as Senate, how we will audit the different dispensaries that we have. I know that through the CDF and the devolved funds, we have many dispensaries that have been built. Do we have facilities and medical practitioners? This is something that this House must look at. As we complete the year, the Motion will come in very handy. The year is coming to an end and we need to do an audit. We need to ask ourselves, by the time we were devolving the health sector, how many medical practitioners we had. We also need to find out, in the time that we have faced challenges, how many have moved to the private sector and what shortage we have. We have a huge shortage in the health sector. The Government had promised to employ more. I think it is this Motion that we need to follow up. Can we urge the Government, as it increases the number of teachers, to also look at the health sector? We need to move on knowing that within the service sectors of health, schools and the police, we have a balance that takes care of the local mwananchi that we are trying to serve. The biggest challenge we face now is to ask the Senate and the National Assembly to look at their reports and harmonise them. It is important for the sector to agree that once in a while the two Committees can sit together and give a way forward to Parliament as an institution in the challenges it faces. The House will then have knowledge on how to deal with the issue. 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."
}