Recurring strikes by medical officers over understaffing in hospitals and insistent calls to have institutions of higher learning enroll more medical students, will not cure the challenges of human resource in referral hospitals in Kenya, the chairperson of National Cancer Institute Timothy Olweny said, as efforts of narrowing the gaps in hospice and palliative care in the country takes shape.
Speaking from the Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital when marking the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2024 celebrated every 12th of October, Dr. Olweny stressed the need of streamlining the referral system in the country due to incapacities within the medical human workforce
According to Dr. Olweny, the healthcare workers need specialty to address the needs of the ailing population as opposed to them taking care of a wide range of patients.
”The issue of human resource in the country will never end over the growing population and so medics need to have expertise on specific ailments,” Olweny stressed, adding ” we can streamline our referral system and optimize the use of technology to achieve this .”
NCI chairperson further reiterated the need for lower level hospital medical workers to gain assistance on certain medicine to meet the diverse needs required by palliative care patients, pain management included.
With only a paltry of 106 hospitals in Kenya offering palliative care to patients needing preventive, control and management of certain ailment that include cancer, this year’s World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2024 centered on raising awareness through the spread of vital knowledge on the importance of Palliative care for all.
The Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association executive director David Musyoki revealed that over 14,000 Kenyans access palliative care yearly as efforts to integrate all medical centers under the association continues to bear fruits of access of medical care.
This, as Musyoki called for dedicated budgets for palliative care in the country, even as he lauded 45 counties that have functional palliative care units across the country.
”Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital in one among the county hospitals that has picked up very well in offering palliative care in the unit.” Musyoki observed.
But shortcomings in the national cancer registry, as noted by Dr Olweny, continue to stifle access to records of cancer patients accessing palliative care as is dependent with reporting with different stakeholders.
”In the absence of having an integrated system through which people can do reporting, most data keep getting lost through the cracks. Data from the national cancer registry is not a true reflection of what we have interms of the situtation we have on the ground.”Olweny said.
Hospitals, and cancer survivors and warriors were among many health stakeholders who joined KEHPCA in celebrating World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2024 in Nairobi county.