Hire more therapists, body urges Health ministry
Kenya Occupational Therapists Association (KOTA) has urged the government through the Ministry of Health to consider hiring more therapists.
Evans Obaigwa, the association’s president, said there is acute shortage of occupational therapists in public facilities an issue which needs to be addressed.
He said every public health facility should have a therapist pointing out that the patients in rural areas are forced to travel to bigger facilities to get the services.
“Occupational therapists are only available at the Level Five and Four hospitals but we want more deployed to the health centres in the rural areas where they can be attending to the people,” he said.
He also said the number of patients who require the services is growing by the day and thus the need to have more therapists.
“This is one of the areas that’s been overlooked when it comes to staffing and I urge the government to consider hiring more therapists for better medical care” said Obaigwa.
He noted that majority of people especially the aged are not able to access the occupational therapy services and only get them when free medical camps are taken closer home. He added that only few people are able to hire private therapists to attend to their patients at home.
The Kota president also urged the government to buy modern equipment for the facilities pointing out that majority of the hospitals are using very old machines which may not be effective.
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