In the last week of March, a disturbing incident occurred: A man went into a hospital in Homa Bay County claiming to have Covid-19, causing pandemonium. Like bats from hell, everybody ran out.
This scenario is bound to recur one time too many if urgent safety measures and training are not made available to primary healthcare providers.
The pandemic has made us all alert to health injustice with regard to healthcare financing. In their seminal paper, Agnes W. Kibui, Ruth K. Mugo and other researchers asserted in their introduction: “Global health plays a crucial role in global security. Globalisation, increased international travel, trade and expanding economies prompt the need to think of health in a global context.”
The global nature of Covid-19 was properly predicted by the authors and they made it clear that the battleground has shifted; the combatant is no longer flesh and blood foes but a virus that is virulent, unpredictable and incurable.
Of all the coronaviruses, including Mers and Sars, Covid-19 takes the crown in both its benign manifestation and deadly exponential ability to spread. It validates the adage “when it rains softly, it sinks deeper”.
Devolving of health services to the 47 counties left the national government with policy functions, research and regulation of the sector.
Key among them are the seven “semi-autonomous agencies”. They are Kenyatta National Hospital, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kenya Medical Supplies Authority, Kenya Medical Training College, National Aids Control Council and National Hospital Insurance Fund. The counties are responsible for facilities classified as levels 1-5. This is where the problem is.
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The notion gaining currency within epidemiology circles is that the announced Covid-19-positive cases are but the tip of an enormous iceberg. Health workers are ready to pursue their calling and, if need be, risk their lives fighting the virus.
However, the national government should provide them with personal protective equipment (PPEs) and certified biosafety cabinets for the laboratory officers and equip the state laboratories since this is where the safety of the nation shall be determined.
As KPMDU proposed to the BBI task force, health should be managed by a commission — just like teachers. And the coronavirus pandemic has vindicated the doctors’ union.
The national government is a signatory to supranational agreements such as the Abuja Declaration, which requires it to allocate at least 15 per cent of the annual budget to health. Only Tanzania has done that.
When Kenya’s confirmed Covid-19 cases hit 25, President Uhuru Kenyatta proclaimed: “I wish to assure you all that, as a government, at both the national and county levels, we are implementing strict evaluation and monitoring protocols designed to proactively seek out and test persons who may be carriers of this virus.”
The President means well for the nation but, as his foot soldier, allow me to use the refrain, “Kwa ground vitu ni different (things are different on the ground).” If the swiftness, precision and zeal of security forces in enforcing the curfew were duplicated in the health system, many lives can be saved.
Mrs Ochichi is an epidemiologist and laboratory officer with the Ministry of Health. [email protected]
