How many ‘Satrins’ will it take to take health sector seriously?

By Machel Waikenda

Events experienced days ago following attack at a Likoni church exposed a wanting situation the Government needs to address urgently.  As far as emergencies are concerned, Kenya has become a reactive rather than proactive nation. Plainly put, health reform has acquired a permanent bed at the Intensive Care Unit.  It was moving to see baby Satrin  Osinya, eleven-month-old boy with a bullet lodged in his skull following the attack wail in pain. Osinya needs brain surgery. Unfortunately, doctors qualified to undertake these kind of treatments are all in Nairobi.

 So, he had to be airlifted to Nairobi. Mombasa is the second largest city, as so it should have facilities to handle such emergencies, however, this is not the case. Sadly, it is not established whether the Government is making any efforts to improve the situation.

 There was no specialist to attend to baby Osinya in Mombasa, one had to be flown from Nairobi. The situation needs urgent attention to avert preventable deaths.  Yes, there are only 16 registered neurosurgeons in Kenya; 13 are based in Nairobi. This is a sad reality for a country with 40 million people. The cost of surgeries, which is above Sh300,000 in public hospitals is also too high for a majority of Kenyans. It is also worrying that some patients have to wait for up to six months to get operated on for other complications in a country seeking to reach middle-income status in the next 15 years.

 The former government was galvanised into action stations when both ministers of health were diagnosed with cancer. Who will sustain the momentum they started? Where are all the election pledges to ensure health centers are within our homes?  Have the medics’ work-related issues been addressed? The situation calls on the Government to come up with strategies to increase medical specialists.

These strategies should also include equipping hospitals for effective services. Counties must also improve health systems by contributing to the national health policy. Many counties have invested in ambulances, which may remain irrelevant if health facilities do not receive adequate equipment, drugs and staff.

Last year, up to 30 counties slashed their budgets by more than half, compared to what the Ministry of Health previously spent before the advent of devolution. Some counties were reported to have invested as little as Sh24 per person in developing health, while the best spenders were counting on donors to honour their promises to supplement funds.

This must be reversed and if necessary force county governments to dedicate a certain percentage of their budgets to health.

Hospital services must be improved with better pay and conditions for health care professionals and a higher standard of care and treatment for patients. Every Kenyan should have access to high quality health care as guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.  Let Government dedicate more funds to health care and ensure we stock health centres with drugs and equipment.  The Government must address the urgent need for more public health staff. The manner in which emergency cases have been handled in the past calls for urgent need to upgrade and equip of all major hospitals.  

This should be supported by a network of county referral facilities and community-level public health centres. The Government must also establish fully-fledged low-cost diagnostic centres and provide adequate screening and treatment facilities for persons with chronic or terminal illnesses.

The Government should also strive to retain health practitioners, especially the ones travelling overseas.

Strategies must be developed to stem the brain drain to ensure maximum possible utilisation of skills of trained medics.

Devolution was about driving resources to the grassroots and prioritising development projects. Not an obsession with lavish lifestyle.