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{
    "id": 787245,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/787245/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 231,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Shaban",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 139,
        "legal_name": "Naomi Namsi Shaban",
        "slug": "naomi-shaban"
    },
    "content": "The KNH’s problems are bigger than what people are dealing with here. They are problems which cannot be given quick fixes without dealing with them holistically. The KNH, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH), Mathari Mental Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Hospital are all supposed to be national hospitals yet they are treated casually. They are dealt with as Semi Autonomous Governments Agencies (SAGAs). Their boards are not given the full mandate of making decisions. For example, the KNH Board cannot make a decision on how to tackle staff shortfall without seeking a go ahead from the Ministry. Most of the times, even when they put their case across seriously, nobody takes them seriously because it is thought they are exaggerating. It is clear that KNH is overloaded and institutions around it and those from far and wide are dependent on it as a referral hospital and for the treatment of basic ailments. People keep going there because they know it is where they can get the best treatment. It is not good for some of my colleagues to keep making reference to the surgeons who operated on a patient in the mix-up case because a person who is not well trained would not have been able to carry out that kind of neurosurgery successfully. The KNH has done a lot of good for Kenyans yet we do not support it. It is bound to get worse and worse unless we give it the support it deserves. I sat in the Departmental Committee on Health in the 9th and 11th Parliaments and most of our recommendations, especially in the 11th Parliament, were not taken seriously. The Constitution stipulates that the health function should have been devolved in phases, but people were in a hurry. So, in one bang, they devolved health services in the country. That was not going to work. It is obvious it is not working but considering that the three-year transitional period anticipated in the Constitution has elapsed, and we cannot turn back now, we have to face the reality. The die is cast. We have to face the problem and deal with it. If we do not look at the problems of KNH in totality, then there is no way we will solve most of them. People say that equipment at KNH are obsolete. The equipment suffer a big overload. When they are purchased, there are instructions about the maximum number of patients they can handle in a day. However, the equipment ends up doing more than they are supposed to handle. So, the equipment breaks down prematurely. I suggest that KNH must be given funding to purchase enough equipment. You cannot run it on one CT Scanner or one MRI machine. You need to do it as a package where all the equipment are bought in doubles to handle the overload. All institutions in the country are not able to do most of those investigations and so referrals are made to KNH. Their cardiology department has complex machines yet they have never been replaced and most times, KNH biomedical engineers try to fix them with the spare parts they buy. That has not worked over the years, considering they are electronic equipment. With the 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."
}