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{
    "id": 594362,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/594362/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 175,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Njuki",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1372,
        "legal_name": "Onesmus Muthomi Njuki",
        "slug": "onesmus-muthomi-njuki"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Bill. I also want to thank Hon. Neto whom I did not think had knowledge in medicine; I can see that when you are a legislator, you can legislate on any sector in this world. Medical field is more or less scientific. It is critical that when it comes to treatment of diseases and referrals we have to have the correct information, otherwise, patients can end up having wrong or ineffective treatment because of a wrong history of records. How are our records kept in Kenya today? Most Members who are speaking to this Bill are concerned as to how this is going to be funded. Funds will be available if they look at how critical it is for our health sector to have proper records. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, in the health profession, we do not have any system at the moment with trained and qualified people who can keep medical records to be relied on. If you look at our curriculum in the field of medicine and in departments like the laboratory technicians and pharmacy, they have a curriculum. But in this particular case, if you were to go to a hospital in the rural areas, and ask for your records of the previous year, and you were attended there for the same disease, they will not be found. You will be told to say how you have been feeling. They will ask you to tell them approximately the last time you were there and what you were suffering from. Then, they will also ask when you visited the hospital, and if you have ever been given any medicine. If you tell them you were given some, they will ask you for the sample. Sometimes people carry left-overs of drugs they were given last year for the nurses to try to deduce, or figure out, what you could be suffering from. In the developed world the field of medicine is advanced. In South Africa, for example, they have information and communication technology (ICT) system. If you go to a hospital in Johannesburg and later to another one in Pretoria, through ICT, they can access your medical records and tell you your medical history. That way, you will have proper treatment based on accurate records that will reflect what exactly you have been suffering from. That is what Hon. Neto is seeking to establish in this particular case; that is to have a system in which we can train personnel and regulate services. That way we can have trained medical record information managers, who are experienced in this field. When it comes to the issue of private practitioners, where most Kenyans go, there is an attitude that in the public health sector, we do not get fast treatment and sometimes there are long queues. Most people visit private clinics. Who keeps records in those clinics? Sometimes you find the medical officer, or a nurse, who is runs a clinic has employed an inexperienced clerk, who has just left school and does not have any experience in medical records. They just file papers and small books that are usually cut into two. That is what is supposed to act as a medical record for the patient. This is where we normally have very many wrong diagnoses of diseases, 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."
}