Restore ailing public healthcare services
For the last three days, Kenyans have been treated to heart-wrenching narrations from three different families about their ordeals in the hands of healthcare givers in public hospitals. Unfortunately, all the three patients involved in the cases died as they waited for medical attention that was never forthcoming as the caregivers, who earn their living from taxpayers, failed to live up to their oath.
From the narrations, the lives of Eddy Otieno, who was taken to Mama Lucy hospital after being involved in an accident; two-year-old Travis Maina who had been taken to Thika Level Five Hospital before being moved to Kenyatta National Hospital with a fork-jembe lodged in his skull; and Maureen Anyango, who developed complications after delivery at Mama Lucy Hospital, would all have probably been saved had the doctors and nurses there cared more and attended to them on time.
Such cases have become the norm in public hospitals across the country, highlighting the need for the new Health Cabinet and Principal Secretary to step in and give policy directions that will improve service delivery going forward. Since the inception of devolution in 2013, when health was one of the services transferred to county governments, public health facilities have continued to sink into ignominy. This trend needs to be checked.
Services in public health institutions have continued to deteriorate, with the number of patients dying because of shortage of drugs, staff or negligence on the rise. Yet, timely and appropriate treatment is the right of every Kenyan, rich or poor. Efforts by the national and county governments to put up magnificent hospitals, equipped with modern technology risk going to waste due to the high number of people who cannot afford the fees charged and the negative attitude by health workers. Investigations by parliamentary watchdog bodies have proved effective at highlighting the problems.
However, the Ministry of Education, as well as devolved governments, need to take the next logical step and address these problems for the benefit of ordinary citizens.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board also needs to come out strongly address the malaise once and for all and ensure that health professionals live up to their oaths at all times. The board should reward those who exceed expectations and sanction those found culpable, inefficient or lethargic. We must not normalise preventable deaths in public hospitals.
