Dri­ven by her pas­sion for well­ness and a deep belief in the uni­ver­sal need for every­one to have a chance to see tomor­row, Thai­land Ambas­sador to Kenya Ms. Morakot Jane­mathuko­rn spear­head­ed a unique ini­tia­tive last week that aligns with her country’s ethos of cul­tur­al shar­ing. Togeth­er with her team, she orga­nized a self-spon­sored trip to Thai­land, bring­ing togeth­er a care­ful­ly select­ed group of top-notch doc­tors, diplo­mats, eco­pre­neurs, and busi­ness lead­ers from the East African region. The pur­pose of this jour­ney was to explore first­hand the oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able through med­ical tourism in Thai­land. I thank God I was part of this mis­sion, which proved to be not only excit­ing but also pro­found­ly enlight­en­ing, open­ing unprece­dent­ed oppor­tu­ni­ties, and fos­ter­ing valu­able con­nec­tions for the East African region.

From this expe­ri­ence, three crit­i­cal lessons emerge, each offer­ing valu­able insights for the trans­for­ma­tion of Kenya’s health­care system.

First­ly, the con­trast between Thai­land and Kenya in med­ical resource allo­ca­tion is strik­ing and direct­ly affects health­care acces­si­bil­i­ty and qual­i­ty. Thai­land, with 69.95 mil­lion peo­ple, has a doc­tor-to-pop­u­la­tion ratio of 1 doc­tor per 1,500 peo­ple, accord­ing to the Thai­land Min­istry of Pub­lic Health. In com­par­i­son, Kenya, with 56.56 mil­lion peo­ple, has only 1 doc­tor per 16,000, as report­ed by our Min­istry of Health. This high­lights Kenya’s sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges in pro­vid­ing ade­quate health­care services.

The key les­son for Kenya is the urgent need to improve med­ical resource allo­ca­tion. The immense pres­sure on facil­i­ties like Keny­at­ta Nation­al Hos­pi­tal, which report­ed­ly han­dles 700,000 inpa­tients and 600,000 out­pa­tients annu­al­ly, under­scores this need. Increas­ing the num­ber of doc­tors, enhanc­ing facil­i­ties, and improv­ing health­care acces­si­bil­i­ty are essen­tial steps to clos­ing the gap in health­care qual­i­ty and ensur­ing bet­ter care for all citizens.

Sec­ond­ly, dur­ing our expe­ri­en­tial vis­it to Thai­land, we wit­nessed first­hand sev­en hos­pi­tals that exem­pli­fy high health­care stan­dards, each staffed with pro­fi­cient teams and equipped with advanced med­ical tech­nolo­gies. This enables them to han­dle very com­plex med­ical cas­es includ­ing can­cer very effec­tive­ly. As a mea­sure these hos­pi­tals have earned Joint Com­mis­sion Inter­na­tion­al (JCI) accred­i­ta­tion, indi­cat­ing their com­mit­ment to glob­al standards.

In con­trast, in Kenya, only Aga Khan Hos­pi­tal has achieved this accred­i­ta­tion, sig­nal­ing a sig­nif­i­cant poten­tial for growth in our health­care sec­tor. Adopt­ing sophis­ti­cat­ed med­ical tech­nolo­gies and pur­su­ing inter­na­tion­al accred­i­ta­tion are crit­i­cal steps for enhanc­ing the qual­i­ty of care in Kenyan hos­pi­tals. This approach will not only improve health­care out­comes but also posi­tion Kenya as a com­pet­i­tive des­ti­na­tion for both local and inter­na­tion­al patients.

Third­ly, empa­thy and cost-effi­cien­cy must be the pil­lars of our patient care. Thailand’s health­care sys­tem show­cas­es the vital inte­gra­tion of empa­thy with cost-effi­cien­cy in patient care. In each hos­pi­tal we vis­it­ed, includ­ing a local facil­i­ty in Pra­chuab Kirikhan Province under Gov­er­nor Somkid Chan­ta­maruek’s guid­ance, the prac­tice of “med­i­cine with empa­thy” was con­sis­tent­ly appar­ent. This approach extends from sim­ple con­sul­ta­tions to com­plex surg­eries, ensur­ing com­pas­sion­ate treat­ment at every patient interaction.

Remark­ably, health­care ser­vices in Thai­land are pro­vid­ed at 30% to 40% of the costs found in Kenya, yet they main­tain the same high qual­i­ty. This afford­abil­i­ty, along­side high stan­dards, posi­tions Thai­land as an attrac­tive med­ical tourism hub. Advo­cat­ing for Kenya, this mod­el pri­or­i­tizes patient well-being, empa­thy, and cost-effi­cien­cy in healthcare.

As we reflect on these lessons, it becomes evi­dent that Kenya has the poten­tial to trans­form its health­care sys­tem by adopt­ing the best prac­tices from Thai­land and part­ner­ing with those hos­pi­tals. The few Kenyans who can afford to seek med­ical care abroad do so because of the effi­cien­cy, afford­abil­i­ty, and empa­thy they expe­ri­ence. How­ev­er, this lev­el of care should not be the priv­i­lege of a few but the stan­dard for all Kenyans.

The onus is now on our new CS for Health Deb­o­rah Barasa and our pol­i­cy­mak­ers to enact deci­sive health­care reforms. This means increas­ing the num­ber of qual­i­fied doc­tors, enhanc­ing our med­ical facil­i­ties, and ensur­ing the deliv­ery of effi­cient, afford­able ser­vices. We must ensure that our health­care sys­tem is not just robust and reli­able, but a foun­da­tion for every Kenyan to not only sur­vive but thrive. Think Green, Act Green.