Use lessons from Covid-19 experience to improve local healthcare

Valentine Lung'apher (right), a nurse at Busia County Referral Hospital administers the Covid-19 vaccine to James Kuya, county health records and information officer [Mumo Munuve, Standard]

For many years, the political elite in Kenya have had unlimited options whenever they require specialised healthcare. They have often sought treatment in India and other countries with superior healthcare systems.

Cancer treatment, for example, has caused many wealthy people to fly out of the country to access treatment, while the poor majority have lost lives and livelihoods as they battled the financial, emotional and physical ravages of caring for their loved ones.

However, when history is written, 2020 and 2021 will go down as the years when a small, invisible enemy equalised all men and women, at least in their realisation of the vainness of material wealth.

Those lucky enough to live to tell the story will remember the desperation of both the haves and the have-nots as they, united in pain, gasped for air after contracting the deadly coronavirus. In Kenya, unlike many other diseases, the coronavirus disease has ‘levelled the playing field’ for both the political class and the common mwananchi, if use of local hospitals and home remedies is anything to go by.

Given their comprehensive medical insurance covers, it is likely that many politicians do not understand what it feels like to reach the end of the road in seeking treatment, especially due to lack of funds. Unfortunately, all it takes to send many Kenyan families to destitution is a chronically ill member.

For example, the cost of dialysis for many patients with kidney failure is still too high and the machines out of reach. There are numerous stories of families who have sold all their earthly belongings in a bid to seek proper healthcare for their loved ones. Lack of proper diagnostic equipment often leads to misdiagnoses and delayed treatment for otherwise treatable conditions, causing unnecessary suffering and even death.

Reading Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungi’s recollection of his encounter with the virus and the lessons from the experience, it is evident that the emotional, physical and even social effects of battling the disease do not discriminate.

I hope his experience, and indeed that of many other leaders who recovered, pushes them to think more seriously about the quality of healthcare systems at the county level. I hope they remember that for many poor families, that hopelessness is all too familiar, brought about by lack of basic medical supplies to treat manageable illnesses like malaria, diabetes, infant diarrhoea or HIV and Aids.

Leaders who have recovered from the disease should use their experience to empathise with the poor and strengthen local healthcare facilities by ensuring enough provisions of medical supplies and personnel. I hope that county referral hospitals will be equipped with enough Intensive Care and High Dependency Unit beds to serve citizens beyond the pandemic.

Dr Kiambati is a communications specialist, Kenyatta University-Women’s Economic Empowerment (KU-WEE) Hub.