Health crisis in counties cannot be whitewashed

This past week, the Kenya Medical Association held the 43rd Annual Scientific Conference and annual general meeting in Eldoret.

The theme was “Towards effective e-health in Kenya”, and all those attending the meeting agreed that technology has inevitably intruded into the doctor’s consulting room and the invasion can only get more pervasive with time.

Innovations integrating technology into health care and research were discussed, and one can only conclude that in this respect, Kenya is poised to take a leading position on the continent.

Interestingly, the meeting was held at the same time as governors were meeting in Kisumu to take stock of the challenges and successes they have seen since taking power two years ago.

While most of them extolled their overall successes, a few voices could be heard raising the red flag with regard to the health sector. It is generally agreed that with devolved government, a lot of improvements have been seen in many sectors, including some quick wins in the county health services.

However, it is difficult to completely whitewash the crisis in the sector. During the medical association meeting, members expressed misgivings about the management of human resources for health across the country.

It is no secret that a large number of counties have had crisis after crisis in the health sector since the inception of county governments. Even as the governors were thumping their chests and showing off the ambulances they have bought and health equipment they have installed, health workers in their counties were on strike or had quit to seek better working conditions elsewhere.

ARROGANCE STANCE

A local news feature placed the whole issue in context, showing a secondary school drop-out running a health facility in one of the counties. The county health administration was quoted as indicating that the young man’s work was satisfactory, and any problems would already have been picked up by the system. In my view, that is the key problem in the management of human resources for health.

Political leaders have adopted an arrogant stance towards health workers, threatening and belittling them, and then expecting them to grin and bear it, and continue delivering quality health services.

In the beginning, county health workers were ethnically profiled and encouraged to seek employment in their home counties. Those that chose to remain and continue serving Kenyans “away from home” faced discrimination, abuse and poor career progression.

The consensus among health workers is that something seriously needs to be done. We must stop using the lives of Kenyans as bargaining chips in a game of political one-upmanship.

Our politicians must be constantly reminded that a life lost due to mismanagement of the health sector cannot be recovered, and many lives are indeed being lost.

They must get off their high horse and engage health policy experts and professionals in generating solutions that place the health and well-being of people above all else.

The experts have argued that scarce human resources for health should be managed and distributed nationally, while politicians and their praise-singers have insisted on perpetuating the current confusion in the sector.

Every single day this crisis persists is the result of the continuous choice we make, to listen to politicians and demagogues and ignore the professionals.

Prof Lukoye is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Dean, Moi University School of Medicine [email protected]