The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union (KMPDU) has called upon the government to streamline the public health care system in the country.
The Union, led by Secretary General Davji Bhimji Atella singled out the recent case of the young boy who lost his life at the Kenyatta National Hospital on Tuesday, after having a fork jembe lodged in his skull for almost two days saying that the situation was preventable.
“For Universal Health Care system to be realised, the consumers of health services must not be made to pay for services at the point of use. It is this realisation that has distinguished the true UHC model as implemented by the United Kingdom’s Government under the National Health Services Trust from the commercial model which is insurance driven as implemented in other parts of the world.” Stated Davji
KMPDU claims that many lives have been lost due to lack of emergency care and skilled medical personnel in public hospitals citing a similar case of one of their own Stephen Mogusu who died after contracting Covid-19 in 2020 from a ward he was working in and was not attended to on time leading to his demise.
The medical practitioners have called for candid discussions surrounding the health care sector including reverting health services back to the national government as a public utility, improving the technological infrastructure and buildings to fill up the glaring gaps in skilled personnel.
They have also called for an end to commercializing of health-care services which has increased inequality and isolation amongst the poor who cannot afford to pay.
This comes after Judy Muthoni, the deceased boy’s mother who claimed that the hospital management asked the family to pay Sh20, 500 which they could not raise where the boy died waiting to be taken to the theatre.
“For Universal health care to be realized, the consumers of the health services must not be made to pay for the services at the point of use. Health care is expensive and inaccessible to majority of Kenyans,” observed Bavji
The union also decried the lack of skilled personnel in the health sector and called upon national and county governments to upscale the employment of specialised health care officers in hospitals.
They insisted that for a hospital to be of the level five status, it has to have at least a Neurosurgeon, an Anesthesiologist consultant among other consultants and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) capabilities.
“The KMPDU makes a clarion call to the national and county governments to refocus their attention and seriously embark on making healthcare a social good and rendering it to the most vulnerable of our people equitably,” Davji alluded.