POSTED FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2013 | BY- LUIS FRANCESCHI Unhealthy Devolution: Underpaying doctors will take us from health to hell Sensible county authorities should be planning how to attract the best doctors in the country. ADVERTISEMENT By LUIS FRANCESCHI Author Profile Law without values is the prefect recipe to nurture a ruthless and unjust society. Pitifully, Parliament’s approach to law making is sometimes pragmatic and short-sighted. This is basically the result of a contagious sickness that has affected practically every parliament on the planet. And it is based on Justice Oliver W. Holmes’ notion of law. For Justice Holmes, one of the most radical legal positivists of modern America “if you want to know the law and nothing else, you must look at it as a bad man, who cares only for the material consequences which such knowledge enables him to predict, not as a good one, who finds his reasons for conduct, whether inside the law or outside of it, in the vaguer sanctions of conscience.” Holmes wrote in 1905 to Felix Frankfurter “I quite agree that a law should be called good if it reflects the will of the dominant forces of the community, even if it will take us to hell.” Most parliaments on earth have fallen into this trap, including our own. If the majority says so…it must be right, even when it leads to hell. And to hell we are going with one of the few really devolved functions: Health. This time around it is not Parliament’s fault. On the contrary, Parliament is a victim of the lack of imagination of some county officials. Sense should prevail We all remember that a few months ago medical doctors went on strike. It ended when the national government agreed to pay a salary increase, which was granted in the form of perks, bonuses and benefits. County officials have now threatened doctors with not paying any such bonuses, but only the basic salary, once they become county doctors. Understandably, doctors have reacted and they are logically lobbying to change the law so as to remain under the national government. READ: ATWOLI: How to resolve crisis in the health sector READ: Governors fight to keep health docket County authorities need a bit of imagination. Some sense should prevail. Put down numbers and plan a strategy that may encourage doctors to jump on to the devolution wagon. So far the appalling lack of imagination of county authorities should make anyone cry. Surely, health is a key element in county strategy. Underpaying medical practitioners will take us from health to hell. Health became part of the devolution agenda with a clear goal: To improve health services and facilities throughout the country. It was clear that such ambitious goal would only be achieved if accountability levels were raised. Accountability triggers transparency.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 08:54:52 +0000
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