In a week marked by fer­vent dis­cus­sions on health­care, two press­ing issues cap­tured my atten­tion like nev­er before — med­ical neg­li­gence and the high costs of med­ica­tions. These issues reveal deep­er sys­temic fail­ures that not only threat­en patient safe­ty but also impede access to essen­tial treat­ments, par­tic­u­lar­ly for chron­ic con­di­tions such as dia­betes, which I per­son­al­ly manage.

In 2023 alone, accord­ing to the Kenya Nation­al Bureau of Sta­tis­tics, 205,731 deaths were reg­is­tered in Kenya, high­light­ing the pro­found impact of health­care defi­cien­cies on our pop­u­la­tion. This stark sta­tis­tic serves as a dire warn­ing of the poten­tial con­se­quences of unad­dressed med­ical neg­li­gence and inac­ces­si­ble health­care services.

Recent­ly, an alarm­ing instance of bla­tant med­ical neg­li­gence came to light, involv­ing a dear rel­a­tive of a per­son I hold in high esteem, who was rushed into surgery with­out the required pre­op­er­a­tive assess­ments, includ­ing hav­ing eat­en just before the pro­ce­dure. This glar­ing over­sight led to severe com­pli­ca­tions and a trag­ic death last week­end, under­scor­ing a dis­turb­ing trend of dis­re­gard by an irre­spon­si­ble doc­tor for patient safe­ty pro­to­cols. Such cas­es are symp­to­matic of a broad­er issue where the urgency of health­care deliv­ery often trumps the qual­i­ty of care. While I stum­bled into inti­mate details of this case, out of respect for the patien­t’s fam­i­ly and their ongo­ing grief, it is essen­tial to approach this dis­cus­sion with the utmost sen­si­tiv­i­ty and a com­mit­ment to pre­vent­ing future occurrences.

Par­al­lel to this is the pro­hib­i­tive cost of essen­tial med­ica­tions. For exam­ple, Rybel­sus, one of the newest and most effi­cient med­ica­tions for dia­betes, costs about 90,000 KES per month in Kenya, near­ly 30 times what it costs in most parts of the world. Patients are now left with the option of import­ing the med­ica­tion from Thai­land, Dubai and var­i­ous parts of Europe cost­ing them a mere 10,000 KES. This stag­ger­ing dis­par­i­ty not only places a sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial bur­den on myself and the report­ed 3.3 mil­lion Kenyans liv­ing with dia­betes but also rais­es crit­i­cal ques­tions about the fac­tors dri­ving such high prices and the appar­ent con­flicts of inter­est with­in our phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal sup­ply chain.

Now that I am not a prac­ti­tion­er in this field, I choose to address these chal­lenges with a com­mon leader’s log­i­cal, mul­ti­fac­eted approach. First, we must rein­force the true pur­pose of insur­ance, which fun­da­men­tal­ly serves to col­lect funds and then effec­tive­ly man­age the risks. Yet, the cur­rent state and focus appears heav­i­ly skewed towards fund col­lec­tion, with insuf­fi­cient atten­tion to risk man­age­ment — a gap that could under­mine the inten­tions of well-mean­ing schemes like SHA/SHIF.

Sec­ond, we need a trans­par­ent and fair pric­ing mech­a­nism for med­ica­tions. By revis­it­ing and pos­si­bly restruc­tur­ing the entire phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal sup­ply chain — from import tax­es to retail markups — we can align our med­ica­tion prices with glob­al stan­dards, ensur­ing that all Kenyans have access to afford­able health­care and, above all, save lives.

More­over, empow­er­ing patients through edu­ca­tion and tech­nol­o­gy can play a piv­otal role. By devel­op­ing dig­i­tal plat­forms that pro­vide patients with easy access to their med­ical his­to­ry, treat­ment options, and clear infor­ma­tion on med­ica­tion pric­ing, we ensure that they are well-informed and active par­tic­i­pants in their health­care decisions.

The gov­ern­ment, along­side the pri­vate sec­tor, must spear­head these reforms. It is imper­a­tive that pol­i­cy­mak­ers, includ­ing those at the high­est lev­els of gov­ern­ment, pri­or­i­tize the health of the nation by over­haul­ing the reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work and ensur­ing health­care affordability.

I also sug­gest that the pub­lic must take an active role in this trans­for­ma­tive jour­ney. By report­ing instances of neg­li­gence, demand­ing fair pric­ing, and hold­ing health­care providers account­able, we can col­lec­tive­ly ensure a health­care sys­tem that is not only sus­tain­able but also just and equitable.

As we move for­ward, let’s har­ness these chal­lenges as oppor­tu­ni­ties for sys­temic change. By tack­ling med­ical neg­li­gence and the high cost of med­ica­tions head-on, we can safe­guard the health of all Kenyans and uphold the dig­ni­ty of every patient. Togeth­er, we can build a health­care sys­tem that reflects our val­ues of fair­ness, trans­paren­cy, and respect for human life. Think green, act green.