For a country that boasts perhaps the most sophisticated healthcare system in East and Central Africa, the revelation that four in five doctors, clinical officers and nurses cannot accurately diagnose common diseases is shocking.
That should concern not just the health authorities, but the government as well.
According to the Kenya Health Service Delivery Indicator Survey (SDI) 2018, these supposedly well-trained professionals cannot tell, for certain, whether the patients who come before them are suffering from pneumonia, diarrhoea, tuberculosis and type 2 diabetes.
It’s simply unbelievable. If not properly diagnosed, it goes without saying that patients end up getting the wrong treatment and medicine and some succumb to their illnesses.
The survey, carried out in 3.094 health facilities across the country, indicates that only 43 per cent of these medical workers can correctly diagnose three of the four conditions.
It is therefore not surprising that, in the first eight months of this year, the number of patients reportedly harmed by medical treatment was 100 — eight times the number in the same period last year.
We certainly have a problem here, considering that many of these health professionals work in the public healthcare system, on which the majority of the population rely.
The much smaller private sector, though a lot more stringent, employs fewer workers.
With the incidence of these diseases on the increase, urgent steps must be taken to plug any gaps and ensure that the people get quality medicare they deserve.
In the short-term, the health managers must come up with quick solutions, such as having the workers undergo training to upgrade their skills.
The long-term solution is to review and tighten the training of health personnel in the various institutions.
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