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{
    "id": 566413,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/566413/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 137,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Njuki",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1372,
        "legal_name": "Onesmus Muthomi Njuki",
        "slug": "onesmus-muthomi-njuki"
    },
    "content": "voted for the Constitution, we put all our eggs in one basket because we took a very important sector in this nation and put it in the hands of very inexperienced people who, at the moment, are running the services down. To give an example of how pathetic the situation is, for three consecutive weeks, the medics of Tharaka Nithi County have downed their tools and the health services in the whole county were grounded. If you visited a hospital like Chuka, which has an in-patient capacity of 150 beds, it had no single patient in the wards. Only two departments were opened at that time: the cash office and the mortuary. If you inquired from the persons manning those offices, they told you that they could not close the cash collection point because the mortuary was open. They continued collecting money that came in as mortuary services fee. In that particular period, we had more funerals in Tharaka-Nithi County than weddings or anything else. At the same time we put a lot of strain on Embu Hospital and Meru Hospital. I am trying to imagine this situation: If we had partly devolved health where the national Government was left with one key hospital in every county, then we would be having at least one referral hospital which would be under a different management, so that even when the county governments mismanage the health services, we would at least have one facility where patients can go to. We still have to seriously think or rethink our strategy, and whether we really want the health service to stay where it is, devolve it partly or totally or bring it back to the national Government. This is because it is risky as it is at the moment. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am happy that Hon. Pukose really gave us the insight into what a Blood Transfusion Centre (BTC) means. We just thought it was a place where people go to get blood transfused every day; I see it even in dispensaries. Realistically, it is a place where blood is matched, screened and sent to other units to be stored at the right temperatures. This kind of thing is needed in areas where we have poor infrastructure which mostly results in very fatal road accidents as we have at the Nithi Bridge in Tharaka-Nithi County. We normally suffer a lot when we have to look for blood and sometimes even go to the media to appeal for donation of blood, because we do not have ready blood banks that can actually help patients. I support the Motion and say that it is vital that even as we bring the leased equipment, if we should have intensive care units (ICUs) in every county and constituency as the Motion says at the moment, then we will better the lives of our people, and reduce the risk of this sector which is so critical in our lives. As I finish, the issue of---"
}