Specific objectives

The quality of healthcare services offered in public hospitals across Kenya has deteriorated rapidly over the last 20 years. There are increasing reports of many, who have lost their lives due to the negligence by hospital staff. Though funded by the government, through tax-payers money, public hospitals give their clients very poor services. As public healthcare deteriorates, private healthcare facilities are experiencing booming business. The private sector is the main driver for innovation in medical facilities and products, but unfortunately a majority of Kenyans are unable to access these facilities and products due to high cost involved.

MMF seeks to change the status quo in the public health services in Kenya through the following objectives:

• Creating awareness and educating the masses on their rights as patients.
• Providing synergies and partnerships between doctors, patients and the public in general through mapping and recognition of the best doctors and hospitals.

• Contribute to research and information on health sector in Kenya

• To enhance the work of the Ministry of health to ensure that only referred patients visit the referral hospitals in order to reduce the congestion of patients on the hospital by way of campaigning for the equipping of health centres, dispensaries and all other health care facilities

PROGRAMS

1) Excellence Centre

MMF is putting up a call centre where people can call in to give feedback on the services provided to them in the public hospitals. The call centre will help in nominating the best doctors and hospitals. This information will in turn be forwarded to the public so that they can make informed decisions as they choose which hospitals to visit. MMF has already been running campaigns dubbed` SILENT NO MORE where Kenyans are being encouraged to talk about their experiences in the public hospitals.

The call centre will enable a survey highlighting experiences and difficulties faced by the patients in the public hospitals and hence avail data which can be used to lobby for change by targeting the various stakeholders.

A Hospital Satisfaction Index chart, where Kenyans are able to vote for hospitals and Doctors who give quality care will also be part of the centre.

2) Medicine As a Vocation- Schools Program

A good number of high school students are choosing medicine as a career for the wrong reasons. Some choose it because of pressure from their parents who are attracted by the prestige and monetary rewards that are associated with being a doctor. This eventually ends up affecting delivery of services because ‘The secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient,” and this cannot be done if the heart of the care giver is elsewhere.

MMF has started a schools’ programme where they sensitize students on the need to go into medicine for the right reasons.

3) Adopt a Patient

This program seeks to mobilize Kenyans of goodwill to volunteer their time and resources and support patients in our public hospitals who are unable to pay their bills. Through this program, the foundation proposes creative solutions to support public health institutions in the task of vetting needy cases, and organizing follow-ups of needy patients after discharge.

4)         Creating Awareness on the Rights of Patients.

All too often, a vast number of Kenyans justifiably approach public hospitals with a sense of diminished expectations whenever they seek treatment. MMF believes that quality is achieved faster in an environment where patients are aware of their rights and what to expect from the care giver. In this regard MMF has committed to hold continuous campaigns to raise awareness through a diversity of communication channels and public forums. All these will be part of an initiative to get people talking and thinking about their rights as patients and also demanding better health care in public hospitals  Mutual trust is essential to the doctor-patient relationship, since patients who trust their doctors are more likely to be open with their doctors and derive the maximum therapeutic benefits