Is barring clinical officers from doing surgery fair?

We should all applaud the Government for making this decision because anyone taking care of patients especially those doing surgeries should have adequate training. This is a right step in ensuring that patients get the right care and it is not about looking down on anybody.

One of the reasons why we are specialists is because most of the cases we handle cannot be taken lightly. If you make a slight mistake, a life can be lost. It requires several years of training to fully understand the human anatomy and that is why you cannot allow just anybody to conduct surgeries.

In emergencies where a decision should be made as fast as possible to save a life, if they do not fully understand the condition or the infection, a serious error that can cost a life can be made. It takes time and training to fully understand the human body and the things that you should not even think about touching whenever you want to complete a successful surgery. You can only achieve that if you are properly trained.

I know there are things that you learn while in the job because healthcare is a team work but the first most important thing is to have adequate education and that is why they should strive to further their education. In this field, whatever treatment you prescribe must be appropriate, it must have quality because it is human life you are dealing with.

To be honest, the government is trying to save the lives of many Kenyans because in the recent past we have seen exposures where many people who are not trained have been duping innocent Kenyans and putting their lives at risks. The clinicians needs to further their studies

Dr Onguti is a Reconstructive and Maxillofacial surgeon at Help A Child Face Tomorrow Organisation