Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 682872,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/682872/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 78,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Maanzo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2197,
        "legal_name": "Daniel Kitonga Maanzo",
        "slug": "daniel-kitonga-maanzo"
    },
    "content": "educated, so that they can help this country especially in the health sector. Biomedical Engineering is also applied in other jurisdictions of the world such as India, UK and America. Therefore, it is high time we took interest in this profession and ensured that it is properly regulated. Despite the fact that a board has been proposed to be created, the mood of the country is to avoid creation of more boards. Indeed, this is a specific board. It is able to generate finances so that it takes care of its own functioning. It is very useful. I believe this is an opportunity for Members to understand this discipline, which provides about 75 per cent of treatment today. If, for instance, you look at the way a patient is being treated and even the bed the patient is lying on, you will realise that there is need for specific engineers in our hospitals. Installation of such equipment, which in most cases is imported, require the service of specialised people. The people are working amorphously in the country and you do not know whether they are governed by the Engineering Act or the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board. So, they are hanging out somewhere and yet they are doing a very useful job for the country. For that reason, I want to support this Bill and urge Members to do the same. It is a very important piece of legislation that will ensure that this discipline is regulated and there is specialised training. Already, the discipline is being offered for training in our universities and at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) at degree and diploma level respectively. We are losing most of the experts in this field because once they are trained, they are not properly accommodated. They end up moving to other countries where they become more useful. The field of medicine is very crucial. Health comes before education. You cannot be educated if you are unhealthy. Health comes before roads and many other things. You need to be in good health in order to enjoy travelling on good roads. The health sector is, therefore, very important. The moment we take care of those who take care of our health, we are sure of having a healthy nation, which has a higher chance of success than when we ignore them. This is a very important discipline and it is even clear in the Memorandum of Objects and Reasons as to why this Bill should become law. It is said that it does not concern county governments directly because county governments are coordinated through a different system despite the fact that health is a devolved function. It is going to be coordinated at the national level so that all these professionals and their concerns are taken care of. That way, we will not have situations like the one we have in some counties like Machakos where doctors and engineers have gone on strike. People are suffering a lot and lives are lost because there is no proper mechanism of handling these professionals. This law is important because you can reach these biomedicine professionals, coordinate them and work with them. This concept, which is already a reality in the world, is also part of our jurisdiction. We should be in a position to know the numbers of these professionals that KMTC produces and how many of them are required in the market."
}