@ Ms Kenya,

Even the private hospital have been making a cry to the government. Nairobi Hospital CEO asked for subsidies to make treatment affordable. If government cannot provisde such a service, it should to work with others.

As for health insurance and proposed national insurance, imagine what mess there will be if we trust GoK. GoK has to put its house in order first. Nyongo must be using BUPA hence his afforded stay in the US. Telling us wananchi to pay national insurance and our senior members having international covers is cheating mwananchi. After all, they only want a bigger kitty to steal from. As PLO puts it, corruption levels in this country are worrying.

Thanks for the heads-up.... i know my heart is not very strong with some things and have a very very soft spot for children..... I know even the grown ups wards are not easy place to be but I will brace myself.

I read somewhere that with a total of about 1 Billion shillings the country should be able to equip all the major districts hospitals with at least one of these machines. Since this is now a crisis what is stopping the govt from allocating such an amount for this purpose immediately?

I realise there are other issues - eg lack of enough trained personnel to operate the machines, cost of drugs - but surely training of the necessary personnel can be fast-tracked, for a start.

Anybody who have might have bought this policy CIC insurance.
Kindly advise how it is.....

http://www.cic.co.ke/Our-Policies/Micro-Insurance

BIMA YA JAMII - A revolutionary comprehensive insurance package at only 3,650 KSH per family per year, which is 10 KSH per day.


Benefits:
• No upper age limit
• Ensures there are no deposits required at admission to hospital
• Covers principal member and family members
• Pays all doctor fees, bed charges, including food, X-ray and laboratory costs, all prescribed drugs, dressings, ICU charges and any other in-patient procedure
• Pays maternity costs for normal and caesarean births
• Pays for treatment of chronic and pre-existing medical conditions
• All surgeries carried out in government hospitals (Category A) are fully covered. For surgeries carried out in Category B hospitals i.e. mission hospitals, Kenyatta Hospital and Moi Referral, there will be a charge of 1 KSH to a maximum of 15,000 KSH depending on the nature of the surgery
• Guaranteed quality treatment
• Rebates at high-cost private hospitals

Cancer care in Kenya is extremely poor. The pain, lack of support and expense makes it really difficult. The big C as it's called, knows no class from Steve Jobs to the patient lying in KNH. While we advocate for radiotherapy equipment we should be realistic about our goals and capabilities. Radiotherapy is just one of the forms of treatment and most patients need some form of chemotherapy. Kenya has very few well trained cancer specialists. We have radiotherapy equipment at New Nyanza Hospital that was never used.
Chemotherapy drugs are also very expensive and patients need to be free from infections during treatment with good laboratory support, which is absent in Kenya.
Using health economics, it would be a futile mission trying to set up radiotherapy centres yet patients still die of malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia. These problems have a greater burden of disease in Kenya and need sorting. I suppose we should improve survival from common ailments first. It reminds me of Prof Nyongo talking of centres of excellence while district hospitals have no medication, supplies and staff. Visit thika district hospital, kisii level 5 and kisumu district hospitals; tears will drop from your eyes as you witness poverty and disease. We can all make a difference by supporting any charity involved in health care.. Not necessarily financial but expertise in accounting, procurement, health education, environmental safety,HR.
No form of pain or loss is desirable. Maybe some preventative medicine with lifestyle changes could also help.