By ALLAN KISIA
Kenya: MPs have petitioned the Government to immediately recruit at least 4,000 clinical officers and 5,000 nurses to address the current health challenges.
MPs further asked the Government to annually recruit 3,000 clinical officers and 3,000 nurses and deploy them equitably to the counties to alleviate the suffering of the people by providing curative and preventive healthcare services.
While moving a Motion in Parliament, Ugenya MP David Ochieng’ regretted that public resources had been used to train more than 15,000 clinical officers and 20,000 nurses who remain idle and unemployed.
The MP noted the Government had just adopted a policy on free maternity services to promote the prevention and early detection of disease risks at household levels through closer and constant disease surveillance.
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“Clinical officers and nurses are the ones who operate most health facilities in most parts of the rural Kenya,” he added.
Seme MP James Nyikal noted the Government had made efforts to improve delivery of health services but said more needs to be done.
He regretted that funding of the health sector had not met the needs of the population as the budget allocation remained low.
Bumula MP Boniface Otsula said the Government should take health services closer to the people by establishing mobile clinics in the constituencies.
“This Motion should have been debated before the Budget Estimates were presented,” he added.
