Betterment of health provision has not stagnated

When a teacher fails to attend class, a learner loses an opportunity to learn. They are deprived of that opportunity and the time is lost, never to be recovered. When a journalist is denied a new story or his access to information is curtailed, his intended audience is deprived of the benefits of the story he was pursuing.

Everything must be done to ensure the environment in which all of us operate is made conducive.

That said, there are areas that cannot afford second guessing. The health sector in this country has not received the seriousness it deserves both from individual citizens, the authorities, the practitioners and mostly the State. One wonders why anyone in their right mind would even imagine gambling with the only issue that in literal and literary sense is a matter of life and death!

It is the reason the more practical ancient practitioners of medicine developed and held dear the principle of the Hippocratic Oath.

According to Wikipedia, “The Hippocratic Oath is an oath historically taken by physicians. It is one of the most widely known of Greek medical texts. In its original form, it requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific ethical standards”.

WROTE OATH

Wikipedia further notes “Hippocrates or one of his students wrote the oath between the 5th and 3rd Century BCE”.

Among the “specific ethical standards” the peddlers of medicine were expected to swear to uphold is that: “Also I will, according to my ability and judgment, prescribe a regimen for the health of the sick; but I will utterly reject harm and mischief”. There is also a point, according to some scholars, that instructs medical care givers to “practise two things in your (their) dealings with disease: either help or do not harm the patient”.

When medical practitioners decide to go on strike, as they do so frequently, and ignore the plight of the sick, I keep wondering if no harm is intended.

Betterment of health provision in Kenya has not stagnated over the years. It is a fact that it is harder to die today than it was some four years ago. It is even easier to be born alive today than it was some years back.

The campaign by First Lady Margaret Kenyatta over the last two years to ensure as many potential mothers as possible and their unborn children get the best medical care is one noble effort that points to steps in the right direction in safeguarding life.

The initiative, dubbed the Beyond Zero campaign, is one that has earned global applause not only for its motive, but also for its effective planning and implementation. Its effects have started to be felt, the politicisation, notwithstanding.

MOBILISE RESOURCES

The State has also done well to mobilise resources and improve facilities in hospitals across the country and ensure that fewer people die of diseases that are curable and preventable. There was even some drama between our leaders at the county and those at the national levels on who ought to have done the procurement of medical equipment. Fact is there is more medical equipment in the country now than ever. But there is a catch: We hear most of the equipment not-so-recently acquired is lying idle in the facilities as patients supposed to benefit from them continue to die because there are no qualified personnel to operate it.

Then there is the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).

The NHIF is one institution whose story has not been told very effectively and this has led to both criticism and praise. There have been complaints of delays in refunds whenever policy holders spend their own money to pay for services.

But in the recent past, I have had interaction with various individuals who have nothing but praise for the NHIF. A friend in the media, for instance, this week narrated to me how his family was pleasantly surprised when after almost a month of admission of one of their rural-based kin in a Nairobi hospital, the fund paid the entire bill. They had spent the month mobilising friends and relatives for a fund-raising.

My friend advised me to enrol my ageing mother to what he called the "Supacover", a product that the fund has been advertising. There is something good the government is doing through the NHIF. We must embrace it. As the State does its best, it should make the working conditions at the health facilities world-class.

Michael Cherambos comments on social issues.