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{
    "id": 725291,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/725291/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 178,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kubai Iringo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1574,
        "legal_name": "Cyprian Kubai Iringo",
        "slug": "cyprian-kubai-iringo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Bill. First and foremost, let me thank my colleague, Hon. Sang, for having thought about it and brought it to this House. I also thank the members who have talked before me because they have been supporting the Bill. I have also stood up to support the same. Clinical officers are known to be the call of our medical practitioners. They are known deep in the villages. Many people do not know they are called clinical officers. They call them doctors in the villages and out there. A clinical officer is the backbone of any medical institution because the bulk of the patients who pass by their medical desks are more than those who end up to the doctor. The doctor will just get the minimum or the most complicated cases or those which need to be referred to the doctor. You will find that in a medical institution where there is a doctor and many clinical officers, all the credit and other benefits or praises go to the doctors who rarely see these patients. They refer them to the clinical officers who have experience. Therefore, bringing in a body which is going to regulate and look into the affairs of clinical officers and also regulate their functions is a noble idea and that is why I thank my colleague, Hon. Sang. This body will also give them teeth to do their practice better. Clinical officers know almost all diseases. They know many of them, especially those affecting the people in the tropics. They have the experience because the turnover of patients in their clinics is more than those who reach the doctors, as I have already said. Before a patient goes to see a doctor, having been prepared by a nurse or having been booked in, it will be the turn of clinical officers to go through that patient. Most patients end up being treated and leaving at that level before they go to the other level of doctors. This body will be charged with overseeing not only the training, but also the practising of the clinical officers. The composition of this body and the Council must have people of integrity. I can see the Bill has put in place the qualifications for those people who need to be in that body, especially those in the medical practice. I would also urge that this body should have a timeframe. This is for Hon. Sang to look at as we go to the Committee of the whole House. The body should be given a timeframe of existence. It should not be permanent. It should also not exist for a long time neither should it exist for a short time. There should be a timeframe so that we can be changing the leadership of the Council so that at the end of the day we do not stagnate but bring in new blood that will come with new ideas. The function of this body will be to get rid of quacks. Out there, there are many people who do this job. I heard of an instance where a cleaner in a local dispensary in my place, who worked as a cleaner for very many years got so versed with the duties of a clinical officer that the clinical officer could let him do duties such as administering injections to children. These people are sometimes very dangerous. Sometime back we had a case where some children were injected by a quack and some of them got paralysed. This body should, therefore, vet critically the medical practitioners especially the clinical officers and those who have been trained outside our country. Some of those who have been trained outside the country come with certificates and purport that they are well trained. Once 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."
}