Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 498682,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/498682/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 372,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "job they are doing. But if you are a doctor, you go to a hospital and you are treating three patients in one bed, then you will find yourself out of place because you were not trained to work like that. Therefore, Madam Temporary Speaker, this Motion is quite clear. The Mover of the Motion is calling upon the Senate and the national Government to urgently address the concerns of medical practitioners to avert the looming breakdown of health services in counties. Whatever you do, these people will move on and do what they want to do. We have to create some financial motivation, facilities and benefits to attract these medical personnel. Unless we do that, irrespective of the improvements we do in our rural areas, you will never find them. For example, where I come from, we have been talking of doctors being posted there only to find that it is not possible because they are not there. Those who are there are employed by private hospitals, but even if they go to private hospitals, who do they treat? It is the people. The only problem there is the amount of money they are required to pay. Otherwise, if we had as many as we can afford, we can allow those who want to go to private hospitals to go because they will get a better income or a good working environment and you cannot stop it. I will not tell my son not to go to Uganda to look for a job if there was a better attraction. So, Madam Temporary Speaker, we need to ask ourselves several questions when we are dealing with this matter. Let us always speak as if we belong to this country. But most of the time when we are talking, it is like we have just come from far away from this country and we have found a lot of problems which did not exist before. All these problems have always been there and they will continue to be there until the Government decides to prioritize what is important, be it the medical services, the security or whatever other area which appears to be more important than the other. It is this position that will require the Government to take advantage of what they think is right in terms of priorities. We need to ask ourselves – because even in devolution, the problems were there – what are we planning to do as the Senate? Do we have any capacity as the Senate? Do we have total ability to influence these people if we have to pass a Motion to call upon the Government to do exactly what we are trying to say? But when you are saying that the county governments and the national Government to co-ordinate their efforts so that they can resolve these problems, they did not wait for this Motion to do that; they have problems. Definitely, they have a lot of problems, especially where I come from. Some hospitals have no medicine even today and it is not this Motion or anything else which is going to give us medicine; it is the management. We have a big problem in terms of wastage, especially of medicine. A lot needs to be done so that the public can feel protected. But the way things are, I would – if I was in a position to do that – want to make things more effective. We can call upon, we can urge, we can find some resolution, for example, by a Committee formed by this Senate to go and visit these areas. We have had these Committees in place; we should ask ourselves: What do these Committees do if we have to appoint another Committee or if we have to urge the Government to talk with the county governments, yet we are there representing the county governments? We should initiate dialogue and make sure that we make it work, especially our Committee on Health, because this is their job. But why do we run away 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."
}