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{
    "id": 725260,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/725260/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 147,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Sang",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1309,
        "legal_name": "Leonard Kipkosgei Sang",
        "slug": "leonard-kipkosgei-sang"
    },
    "content": "To practise clinical medicine and surgery as a clinical officer, one requires four years of full-time training, including supervised clinical practice and internship at accredited medical training institutions and hospitals, and then registers with the Clinical Officers Council (COC). After a prescribed number of years in active practice which is around one to two years, they undergo a further one or two years’ residential training programme in order to specialise in any of the approved branches of clinical medicine and surgery such as anaesthesia. Those are officers who help relieve pain when patients are undergoing surgery. Some specialise in paediatrics, reproductive health, orthopaedics, issues of lungs and skin, Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT), mental health and psychiatry, cancer treatment, eye conditions such as cataracts and others specialise in epidemiology. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the clinical officers with those specialties have contributed greatly to improve health care in Kenya. Clinical officers in anaesthetics, for example, provide around 95 per cent of anaesthetic services. We all know that no surgical procedure or operation can be done without relieving the pain. Other specialists in clinical medicine also contribute greatly to quality and accessible health to Kenyans. There are 35 training institutions across the country for both diploma and degrees. There is Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC), where the initial training of clinical officers started way back in 1928. Mount Kenya University was the first to offer a degree in clinical medicine in the year 2009. Currently, there are other universities that offer degree programmes in clinical medicine. Clinical medicine programme students are recruited from the high school graduate pool. There are two levels of training. There is the three-year Diploma in Clinical Medicine and Surgery and a four-year Bachelors of Clinical Medicine and Community Health. Both focus on clinical medicine and primary care. Both have clinical exposure on mandatory internship for one year. Therefore, the training is four to five years, respectively. A clinical officer in Kenya is well established in the health care system and, most importantly, those professionals are found in rural areas where the need is the greatest. Public dispensaries, health centres, sub-county hospitals especially in hard to reach areas in Kenya are run and managed by clinical officers. Those with specialties also provide special outpatient clinics in the county and national referral hospitals, that is Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) and the Spinal Unit. The health centre has a clinical officer as the in-charge and provides comprehensive primary care. Health centres are middle-sized units which cater for a population of over 80,000 people. The services offered at the health centre level include out- patient. Those are patients who are treated in those hospitals after they are diagnosed and are released to go home. The in-patients are also found in those facilities. They admit patients with simple conditions that can be treated within those facilities. Those health centres have laboratories where clinical officers order for investigations to help them make proper diagnosis. The same facility has a pharmacy service where there are drugs. They have a minor theatre where simple procedures can also be done. They have a maternity wing where deliveries are also conducted and maternal and child health is observed. Sub-county hospitals are similar to health centres, but with additional surgical units for caesarean sections and other procedures. Clinical officers are the first point of contact for over 70 per cent of Kenyans, especially those who live in rural and far-off, hardship areas. Unfortunately, despite being trained and habitually allocated those roles, clinical officers are forced to carry out duties that are unlawful. 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."
}