The COVID-19 pandemic has without a doubt become one of the greatest teachers of our times globally and at local levels that working together yields better returns on efforts put in.
Whereas in the past it has been each health service provider for themselves, collaboration amongst providers has been key in averting deaths and worsening of health conditions. Observing the situation in Kenya, Jayesh Saini, a Kenyan national says that hospitals were reaching out to each for supplies such as oxygen, blood, antibiotics, masks, gloves and even ICU beds. He pointed out how appeals on social media or other mediums of communication were acted upon with such solidarity, all aimed at saving lives.
Kenyans are known as a resilient people who put their differences aside in times of a calamity and during this COVID-19 pandemic has been on another level. Individuals and organisations have come out in large numbers to donate blood. For profit organisations have kept aside their profit margins to provide resources. For example, the private oxygen suppliers provided the commodity they had to start appealing for the cylinders to be returned so that they could refill and send them where they are required. County governments that had not even considered the importance or the value of having oxygen supplies in their counties mobilized resources to ensure they could have access in case of increases cases of the pandemic in their regions.
Jayesh Saini perceived the reality that where there is a will to achieve something there is always a way to do it and hopes that these lessons learnt shall be carried into the future towards improving the healthcare service delivery. He pointed out that this is not because of pandemics or crisis but because it is the right thing to do to ensure healthcare services are available whenever they are needed and within easy reach.
In this regard, he hopes that the big players and the not so big players can have opportunities to work together for the greater good, noting that there is so much untapped potential and populations needing venturing into. The big and well-established players, should therefore not feel like the upcoming players are there to take their long-standing clientele base but an expansion to a greater coverage.
