National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi has backed calls for the formation of a Health Service Commission (HSC) as a lasting solution to the perennial labour tussles between the government and the different unions representing medics in the country.
Muturi, recently crowned spokesperson for the Mount Kenya region, has also challenged legislators to engage with stakeholders with a view to introducing a law to establish the HSC, which medics have calling for since devolution.
“I call upon all stakeholders in the health sector to robustly start an engagement with the Departmental Committee on Health in the National Assembly and their Senate counterparts on Health and probably move this matter from a conversation and have the commission established through an amendment to the Constitution before the end of the 12th parliament,” Muturi said during the 48th conference for medics.
“Such a commission with the finger on the pulse on emerging issues and short turn-around time can cure the situation and bring sanity to our healthcare sector.”
Modern Service Delivery in BBI
The creation of a Health Service Commission is one of the proposals contained in the Building Bridges Initiative Constitutional Amendment Bill 2020, whose fate is in the hands of the Court of Appeal after a five-judge bench in the High Court declared its process unconstitutional.
The Court of Appeal is set to begin hearing the matter on 29th June 2021 and will sit over four days listening to the parties before retreating to give it’s verdict.
Muturi further called for adoption new technological structures of delivery of healthcare, including the putting in place of the infrastructure to support modern means of service delivery like tele-health, nano medicine and robotic surgery in the wake of efforts towards universal healthcare coverage.
He also cautioned against migration of medics in search of greener pastures, noting that it was not good for the country in the wake of the imbalance of the doctor-patient ratio.
“We cannot afford to lose our healthcare professionals to other jurisdictions. In the same vein, we should create both the quality and capacity for training of our healthcare personnel to match our needs.”
