{"id":594318,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/594318/?format=json","text_counter":131,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Oyugi","speaker_title":"","speaker":{"id":444,"legal_name":"Augostinho Neto Oyugi","slug":"augostinho-neto-oyugi"},"content":"Secondly, this law is going to help us with the registration of the health records and information managers. Presently, there is no proper way to know who is properly registered to act as health records information manager. Thirdly, with all the other professions, there ought to be someone who is licensing or giving people certificates of practising. It will equate that particular noble profession with other professions like law, medicine, dentists and nurses. There is a body that gives them licenses for purposes of practising. Right now, across the country, everyone else is practising as a health records and information manager. There is no single body that regulates or gives them licences in terms of how they practise their profession. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, this Bill seeks to create a board and give it various powers and functions so that it is able to properly operate. There is a reason why we are trying to create a board and a law that regulates health records and information to attain the level of professionalism in the sector. Health records and information management is regulated and is in accordance with what most Kenyans anticipate. If you create a board and body that are going to help regulate the profession, there will be accountability for actions of various professionals. Presently, it is not possible to have the various members of the health records and information accountable. This is because they do not fall within the ambit of the Medical Practitioners Board, the Nurses Board, nor the Nutritionists and Dietitians Board. So, this Board will regulate this profession and make sure there is accountability. I would like to speak specifically to a couple of clauses of this Bill. I would like to draw the attention of Members to Clause 3 which creates the Health Records and Information Managers Board. Clause 4 allows the Board to have its offices across the whole country. Clause 5 gives specific powers to the Board. Some of the powers of this Board are to supervise and administer the assets of the whole sector. The Board also has powers to receive grants, gifts and donations for the furtherance of its functions. The Board shall be a body corporate so that it is able to enter into agreements with other bodies and to finish contracts for purposes of ensuring that the Board is fully sufficient. We are also giving the Board powers to open an account and invest funds not immediately required for its purposes. I would like to highlight the provisions of Clause 6. One, we have spoken to the fact that we need to regulate the training, licensing and accreditation of health records and information managers. Clause 6(1) mandates the Board to establish and improve the standards of the health records and information profession. We are hoping to have a profession that has improved standards, which is then properly regulated by the Board. Two, Clause 6(1)(c) seeks to empower the Board to make provision for the training and instruction of persons seeking registration or enrolment under the Act. Presently, it is not possible to regulate these areas. It is only the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) that has been offering trainings for persons who want to join the health records and information management profession. Right now, there are institutions across the country that have developed health records and information management curricula, which are not regulated. So, with the establishment of this Board and the approval of the Cabinet Secretary (CS), we shall have universal training curricula so that people who qualify to enter this profession are regulated. The other thing is that we hope the syllabus to be used for training by various colleges, including the KMTC, is going to be regulated. This will ensure that people with half-baked training do not claim to be health records and information managers. The other thing is that recently the Commission for University Education (CUE) established that a couple of The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."}