FOUNDATION RAISES AWARENESS ON PUBLIC HEALTHCARE

An article by Catherine Karongo [Capital FM | Online Edition 07/08/2011]

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 7 – A non-governmental organisation advocating the health rights of Kenyans has urged the government to ensure that they receive quality healthcare in the country’s facilities irrespective of their financial status.

The Morris Moses Foundation (MMF), in partnership with the Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), wants a 25 percent reduction in the number of patients who are treated and detained in public hospitals because of medical bills.

MMF Founder, Alice Mwongera, says the lobby group will raise enough funds through the Boresha Afya initiative to ensure that it achieves the 25 percent reduction.

“Potentially, we are all guests of the public hospitals because if you have a prolonged illness I can assures you that your insurance will not sustain you and you can not sustain treatment in a private hospital in this country from your pocket,” she said.

“So guess what happens when you run out of money?” she posed.

Speaking at a cocktail function to kick off the initiative, Government Chief Pathologist Moses Njue added that there was a need to train health attendants to become more sensitive to the needs of patients.

He noted that the needs of patients were sometimes ignored by the attendants simply because they were unable to raise the medical fees.

“MMF was born out of a very unfortunate medical incident about this gentleman who for about 40 days was at the Kenyatta National Hospital in a coma and at his death he was very wasted and had bed sores,” he said.

Ms Mwongera further explained that MMF would advocate for increased legislation and stronger policy frameworks to regulate medical practice in Kenya. She noted that this would reduce cases of medical abuse, misdiagnosis, negligence as well as other malpractices.

“That is why we have opted to reach out to both the public and private sector that are part and parcel of the reforms the country is pursuing under the new constitutional dispensation,” she observed.

She also urged other cooperate entities to join the MMF and push for better health care provision.

Intercontinental Nairobi General Manager Karl Hala said that the hotel partnered with MMF to give back to society and also support the push for better services for Kenyans.

“We are pleased to participate in this forum that is targeted to grow to a monthly public forum that will create awareness on patients’ rights and stimulate debate around Kenya’s public healthcare systems,” said Mr Hala.

MMF was established in 2009 and was inspired by the experience of the family and friends of the late Morris Moses Kiromo. Mr Kiromo was 29 when he unexpectedly fell ill in mid 2009 with what started as a flu before elapsing into a coma. He passed away in August the same year.

The foundation plans to hold regular forums that will create awareness on Kenya’s health rights. It also plans to work with medical students in colleges and universities to ensure they appreciate medicine as a vocation and not merely a source of income.

It will also start highlighting cases of medical abuse and injustice in public hospitals.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

NO PRIVATE HOSPITALS FOR PUBLIC SERVANTS

An article by Alice Naserian Mwongera, Founder - Morris Moses Foundation [The Standard | Online Edition 16/01/2011]

Despite evidence to the contrary, the Ministry of Medical Services continues to paint a glossy picture of our public hospitals.

While patients continue to cry out about poor delivery of services, ministry officials bury their heads in the sand, preferring instead to believe information given to them by the hospitals.

Do the PS and the Director of Medical Services honestly believe that in public hospitals, patients are attended to within 15 minutes of arriving at the casualty? Does having Service Charters displayed on hospital walls translate into patients getting quality services?

You would be shocked to learn that most of the staff do not even know what is in the charter, leave alone putting it into practice.

Where should feedback on the quality of services come from? Is it from service providers or from consumers? When running a hotel, you should not be the one to tell customers how tasty the food is.

Perhaps if we had a hospital satisfaction index with information coming from the public, we would believe it. Or even better, change the law to compel all officials paid by taxpayers’ money to seek treatment in public hospitals.

Perhaps if Medical Services Minister Anyang’ Nyong’o, his PS and other senior civil servants were to be compelled by law to seek treatment from public hospitals, they could talk about service provision from a point of knowledge.

Lack of trust

But as things stand, wananchi pay for public servants’ medical insurance to take to competitors because they do not trust the very services they push down their citizens’ throats.

All private hospitals are competitors to public health institutions, and that is where our law makers, the same people who draft health policies, go for treatment.

It is time Kenyans demanded an end to this mockery. If the hefty medical outlay of our legislators and public servants was to be spent in public hospitals, we would have better services and equipment for the benefit of all Kenyans.

Let all those charged with the responsibility of giving the public affordable and quality health care know that Kenyans are dying in hospitals due to delayed treatment and negligence.

Get out of your ivory towers and go to the ground, not in limousines and entourages, but quietly and incognito to see for yourselves. You might want to apologize to Kenyans for having lied to them.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

MINISTRY OF MEDICAL SERVICES LISTEN TO KENYANS NOT TO WHITE WASHED STORIES

An article by Alice Naserian Mwongera, Founder - Morris Moses Foundation [12th January 2011]

The Ministry of Medical services continues to paint a glossy picture of our Public Hospitals, most recently in the Daily Nation of December 24, 2010, page 10. While the consumers of these services continue to cry about delivery of services and bad attitude from the providers, the Ministry officials bury their heads in the sand preferring to believe information given to them by the same hospitals.

Do the PS Medical services and the Director of Medical services honestly believe that in public hospitals, Kenyans are attended to within 15 minutes of arriving at the casualty? Does having SERVICE CHARTERS displayed on hospital walls translate into patients getting quality services? You will be shocked that most of the staff in these hospitals do not even know what is in the service charter, leave alone putting it into practice. Where should feed back on the quality of services be coming from? Is it from the providers of the services or from the consumers? When you are running a Hotel you should not be the one to tell the customers how tasty the food is. Perhaps if we had a Hospital satisfaction Index with information coming from the public, we would believe it. Or even better change legislation to compel every person paid by the tax payer to seek treatment in the public Hospitals. Perhaps if the Minister for Medical services, the PS, the DMS and all public servants were to be compelled by law to seek treatment from the public hospitals, they would tell Kenyans how the services are from a point of knowledge. It is in Kenya that tax payers pay public servants medical insurance to take to competitors because they do not trust the very services they push down their citizens’ throats. All the private hospitals are competitors to the public hospitals and that is where our law makers, the same people who make the health policies for us go for treatment.

It is time Kenyans demanded an end to this mockery. If the huge medical insurances paid to our legislators and public servants were to be taken back to the public hospitals, we would have better services and equipment to the benefit of Kenyans. Let the Minister, PS, DMS and all the others who are charged with the responsibility of giving Kenyans Affordable and Quality health care know that Kenyans are dying in the public hospitals due to slow coming treatment, negligence and bad attitudes from your staff. Get out of your ivory towers and go on to the ground, not in limousines and entourages but quietly and incognito to see for yourselves. You might want to apologize to Kenyans for having lied to them.

Kenyans let us be SILENT NO MORE!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CONSTITUTION GIVES RIGHT TO MEDICAL ATTENTION

An article by Cathy Mputhia – Business Daily [1st November 2010]

Last week there was a lot of media coverage on how a good Samaritan used the Internet to trace the next of kin of an injured victim, who later died.

This story was interesting as it highlighted how useful the Internet, and particularly Facebook, is.

A follow-up story gave details of how the good Samaritan went out of her way to get the injured victim to hospital. Even after the victim succumbed to her injuries, the rescuer made efforts to get the victim’s identity and trace her next of kin. Since it was unique, the story attracted a lot of media attention.

However, I noted that the two women — the good Samaritan and the victim — went through a very nasty experience trying to get medical assistance. In the good Samaritan’s own words, they were turned away at various medical facilities to the point that the victim started losing consciousness.

This is very common in most hospitals. If the victims cannot raise the required deposit, they do not receive medical attention and are sometimes denied the much needed emergency treatment.

Harrowing tales have been recounted of how victims end up dying at the hospital receptions with indifferent nurses not lifting a finger to help. This is very much like the biblical parable of the Good Samaritan.

One would expect that the medical and hospital staff would be the first to assist the victims. Sadly, they turn the other way unless the deposit is paid.

So what does the law say about such cases?

The new Constitution is categorical and rather direct, that no person shall be denied emergency medical treatment. This is a very wide provision of the law but it is also very clear so as to leave no doubt in anyone’s mind as to its meaning.

It might be subject to many interpretations and arguments, but the fact remains that the Constitution is the Supreme law of the land and no other law made can contravene any of its provisions. The provision does not specify circumstances under which the duty is owed. The right is automatic and cannot be taken away under any circumstances.

Some of the situations that this right may be relevant to is in cases such as that of the injured victim and the good Samaritan, where medical institutions flatly refuse to treat patients due to lack of fees.

The other ones that come to mind are cases of sick or injured persons being denied access to treatment by other persons. For example, in most learning institutions, gravely ill students are held longer than they should be, with the learning institution arguing that the school clinic should be sufficient.

That is rarely the case. A poorly equipped school clinic with very basic medication cannot be sufficient to treat serious ailments. There are also cases of cults that advise their members not to go to hospital under any circumstances. It is common for cult members to die due to this.

All these are some examples under which the constitutional right may be invoked by the victim or his next of kin. Most hospitals have policies on treatment of patients. They may argue that they are a business like any other and may come up with policies such as prohibiting treatment without payment.

However, the enactment of the new Constitution has outlawed such policies and it is time for the hospitals to amend any defunct policies to be in line with the new Constitution. There are no laws, regulations or policies that can defeat any of the Constitution’s provisions. Any policy that seeks to do so is null and void.

The same applies to schools and other facilities. Most have a policy on treatment of injured students. However, the administration should bear in mind that persons in need of emergency treatment shall not be denied the same.

There is no justifiable excuse of holding on to a sick person and exposing them to inadequate medical care. Therefore, the injured victim in the reported case should have been given adequate medical attention by all the facilities she was taken to.

The law does not allow the medical institutions to refuse emergency treatment on grounds of hospital policy.

=========================
To comment on this article

Join our Facebook discussion forum.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SHAME OF MPS WHO SHUN PUBLIC HOSPITALS

An article by Alice Naserian Mwongera, Founder - Morris Moses Foundation [The Standard | Online Edition 19/07/2010]

Which hospitals do our MPs and top civil servants visit when they are unwell?

We can posit a number of answers to this, but going by news reports over the years, we certainly know that it’s not to any of our publicly funded hospitals such as Kenyatta National Hospital.

We also wonder if the heads of these public hospitals seek treatment there. When was the last time you heard that your MP was treated in a public hospital? Recently, a legislator from Western Province broke down on visiting one of these hospitals. We ask ourselves, what did he do after that?

Why would leaders shun public hospitals yet they are responsible for formulating the policies that dictate the running of our public institutions? The obvious answer is that they know these institutions have been mismanaged over the years and the quality of health care provided is deplorable to say the least.

Not leaving anything to chance, they opt to go to private hospitals, which offer better services but whose costs remain prohibitive to majority of wananchi.

Ethically speaking, this would not be a problem if they did this at their own expense. However, it’s likely that long-suffering taxpayers’ have been footing their inflated medical bills.

This tragic phenomenon where top public servants visit private hospitals for treatment at tax payers’ expense has been with us for a long time and it’s time we started questioning its morality.

Downright evil

It is downright immoral for one to be elected into public office to “serve” the public yet they dare not seek treatment in the same hospitals. It’s downright evil if the minister in question happens to be an official whose core mandate is to improve the health care system.

As a quick solution to this mockery, I believe the problems bedeviling our public health care facilities would be quickly fixed if all senior public officials were compelled by law to seek treatment in public hospitals (at our expense). If they prefer to visit high-cost facilities, they can do so at their own expense.

A while ago in Australia, the public held a demonstration because the PM was treated in a private hospital. Shouldn’t we also hold our leaders to account in a similar fashion?

We would be interested to hear Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s comment on this matter.