The highs and lows of last year and what we can expect in 2017
A doctor attends to a patient at Kenyatta National Hospital last month. Kenyans should finally realise that our health system has issues that need a serious multi-sectoral approach to tackle. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Mombasa had the remarkable feat of conducting successful heart surgeries outside Nairobi for the first time since inception of our health system.
Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital also had specialised surgeries.
The toast of 2016 though was the successful separation of Siamese twins by the Neurosurgery team at Kenyatta National Hospital.
There’s little to write about 2016 looking back on our health sector last year. I am not sure what the national and county governments’ targets were, but judging by the incessant health workers’ strikes (put at around 48 across the counties last year alone) it is unlikely they were achieved.
Numerous road fatalities that maimed and killed thousands more indicated a lack of progress in road safety reforms. Amid all this gloom though, there were a few positive highlights. These range from formation of new programmes to train specialists, to counties conducting specialised surgeries for the first time since independence.
As kidney disease continues to ravage our population, it was refreshing to see the establishment of the East African Kidney Institute which aims to accelerate capacity building and technical human resource improvement in the field of nephrology.
In the counties, Mombasa had the remarkable feat of conducting successful heart surgeries outside Nairobi for the first time since inception of our health system. Likewise, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital also had specialised surgeries.
The toast of 2016 though was the successful separation of Siamese twins by the Neurosurgery team at Kenyatta National Hospital. The remarkable thing about all these surgeries is that they all happened in public hospitals with limited resources and infrastructure.
As we start 2017, let all health stakeholders look back and reflect on what went wrong and also see the positive starts we made and build up on them.
Here’s my wish list for 2017.
That Kenyans will finally realise that our health system has issues that need a serious multi-sectoral approach to tackle. Being a voting year, the common Kenyan should take stock of the pledges the government made and ask for improvement based on the performance. Top of the government’s action is to acknowledge that it is impossible to deliver free healthcare without improving the uptake of health insurance. This initiative should be prioritised if any meaningful gains are to be made in public health and a five-year plan put in place with set target numbers.
Secondly, the government should accept that devolved healthcare is an expensive affair and counties cannot deliver on their mandate with the limited resources allocated by the national government.
The fear of wastage at the counties could be tackled by having the extra health funds specifically earmarked for health functions.
As far as road safety is concerned, this is a potentially eliminable health expenditure item from our hospitals. Patients staying in hospitals for long as a result of fractures and other injuries sustained in traffic accidents is a common feature in most public hospitals.
Motorcycles in particular have robbed many families of their loved ones. However, all it requires is responsibility from the Traffic Police department and the National Transport and Safety Authority.
Finally, and perhaps the most exciting recent happening, are the reforms initiated by Education secretary Fred Matiang’i. The reforms should be extended to medical training institutions to reinstate the importance of merit and ensure that health workers join colleges on merit and only the deserving exit the gates of the institutions with certificates for the safety of patients.
