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{
"id": 917369,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/917369/?format=api",
"text_counter": 238,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13131,
"legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
"slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
},
"content": "been able to access quality healthcare. When you go to hospital, there are no drugs and we have a lot of industrial action in our counties. We have seen challenges in Laikipia, Kirinyaga and Nairobi City counties on the issues of equipment and medical supplies, but much of that has been because of the speed. We are trying to move from a highly centralized system, where health was being managed from the national Government, to what we have now at the county governments, which includes the human resource, doctors and nurses. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on this particular amendment by Sen. Seneta, I want to note a few things. First, we have come to a time and place that we must weed out the level of corruption that is going on in our counties. I can speak for Nairobi City County. Some of us were born in this city and never had to go to the big hospitals. We had dispensaries and hospitals just around that would deal with our issues. There has been a breakdown of the referral system because of corruption, and I say it for the following reasons. One, when you go to Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, Mbagathi District Hospital or Pumwani Maternity Hospital and get a prescription from the doctor, nine out of ten times that medicine which you have received a prescription for will not be found in that hospital. However, the doctors are very quick to then follow up and tell you that if you go to the chemist out there, you will get those supplies. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, many of the pharmacies around our county and national hospitals have a direct relation with either administrators in the health sector at the national or county level. That must be weeded out. Our counties are spending a lot of money when it comes to medical supplies and equipment, but dawa cannot be found. I have to say that because many of my people are listening to the debate in Kiswahili. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, when we bring together the Council of Governors (CoG), who will be sending two representatives, as I read in the Bill, the counties will also be able to make sure that the kind of stock that they require is what is stocked by KEMSA. It is very difficult to plan for a client who is not involved in the process. We know that the medical needs or the kind of drugs required possibly in Wajir might be different from those needed in Kisii or Kisumu for that matter. Therefore, that involvement is very important. We want to make sure that those who set up pharmacies and chemists in cahoots with the administrators of our hospitals are brought to book. Secondly, we must look at the referral systems in this country. The referral system of health has broken down. Today, if you go to Mbagathi District Hospital, Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital or any referral hospital across the country, you will find people coming there with ailments that ideally should not have reached a referral hospital. Unless we work on the dispensaries and the lower levels; all the way from Level 2, Level 3 until Level 5, we will have such a burden at Kenyatta National Hospital, Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, Mbagathi District Hospital, yet many of those issues can be dealt with at the primary healthcare level. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to urge that even as this Bill is implemented, we must check the referral system and make sure—"
}