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{
    "id": 594359,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/594359/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 172,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) F.M. Mutua",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 539,
        "legal_name": "Florence Mwikali Mutua",
        "slug": "florence-mwikali-mutua"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I stand to support this Bill but I have quite a number of amendments. Personally, I have worked in the health sector for very many years, and have a lot of experience when it comes to health records and how important they are. We all understand the usefulness of medical records and having accurate information, especially when it comes to medical procedures on patients. When it comes to issues of next of kin, which normally cause a lot of uproar when a patient dies, that is also an issue of medical records. I have seen many court cases with regard to wrong information in medical records because of laboratories putting a wrong name of somebody on another’s blood sample. Such things have led to people even being put on anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs for very many years, just because of somebody being negligent and putting the wrong record in somebody’s file. This Bill is very important in aspect of ensuring that we have accurate information, especially when it comes to medical records. This will come up when it comes to training and why people need to be confidential when it comes to medical records in hospitals. When it comes to the issue of a board - this has been talked about by many hon. Members who have contributed – we think of a stand-alone board. How do you expect a stand-alone board to work yet it is the medical practitioners who are mandated to give out medical information? Medical reports can only be released through the consent of the patient and the doctor. So, it will not be possible, according to me, for a board to work as a stand-alone, and be mandated to be dealing with personal information that is supposed to be given out by doctors. The issue of private practitioners having private practice in health records, to me, does not make a lot of sense, and we expect the Departmental Committee on Health to come up with amendments that are going to be key in ensuring that this Bill by Hon. Neto works. As we move on, it will also be important depending on whether the Committee on Health agrees on the issue of the counties. If at all the board will be constituted, we will also need linkages with the counties, so that we can have the right information at the county level. As Hon. Ameso has said, we have an information problem in the counties, especially when it comes to medical records. We have seen information where our old ladies, mostly in the prenatal clinics, are given their reports on paper. As they walk to the hospital with those papers, they tear them because of sweat. We need to have this information put in computers, so that it can easily be accessed when a patient attends hospital. We have a very long way to go when it comes to ensuring that we have information digitized, especially on medical cases. As I end, I want to reiterate the issue of having the right training for medical practitioners, especially when it comes to the health medical records. These people hold very key information especially on patients. They need to be trained up to some very critical level, 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."
}