Jayesh Saini

  Many people are more aware of the need to have a powerful immune system since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic that has not spared any continent. Whereas, it has been said there is no cure for the viral disease, many have found that boosting their immunity using food supplements, herbal medicines and other nutraceuticals is a cheaper option to being hospitalized for the COVID-19. Nutraceuticals have been used in the treatment of and prevention of diseases with evidence of improved health in many and without the side effects that are seen while using pharmaceutical products, mainly manufactured using artificial/chemical-based ingredients. Despite the continuous negation by some medical fraternity, many individuals have confirmed that their health has greatly improved after taking fully food-based supplements especially Zinc, Vitamins C and D, stating that they were able to resist even the ordinary colds that come during the cold seasons. The sales of herbal medicines such as s...

 Africa is endowed with so many resources – both human and natural resources. This makes it a continent that remains in focus and creates great interest from other continents. Over the years, the continent has been plagued by all outbreaks of diseases ranging from malaria to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas some of the conditions are peculiar to Africa or regions in Africa, sources of drugs have greatly been from other countries. One of the challenges has been accessing raw materials for the manufacture of drugs. Research and development on this are critical to reducing over-dependency on other countries. The continent is home to very many indigenous plants that are used for medicinal purposes especially traditionally and this creates a potential for expansion to the production of nutraceuticals at a commercial level in more controlled hygienic environments. The plants can also be used in the manufacture of more medicines. Instead of selling raw products which end up being ...

  Making healthcare affordable and accessible for all so as to attain good health is a fundamental agenda government of all governments. There are different paths to achieving this goal from government to government even as there are different priorities with the healthcare service delivery. Unfortunately, in Africa there is evidence of decades of under-investment, under-development and over-stretching of healthcare system that has affected service delivery which in turn has given compromised health outcomes. A private investor in the Industry, Jayesh Saini CEO of Bliss Healthcare, says “there are two main areas that are interrelated and affect the health outcomes of any society, namely availability of the health facilities with requisite services that take care of the needs of the populations and access to finances to pay for the services. The two must be available simultaneously if success is to be reached.” It does not make sense to have ultra-modern facilities, whether basic or...

As countries pre-set time frames for achieving UHC draws near, many are looking into ways of ensuring that there is sustained good healthcare for the citizenry. Many have realized that focusing too much on treatment of cases as they arise is always more costly than carrying out preventive measures. There has therefore been an increase in prevention. According to Jayesh Saini, educating people on health life styles is a good venture but notes that some of the diseases are very subtle and could be without symptoms for a long time. Such diseases are normally diagnosed when they are critically advanced. He stated that as more and more packages are developed to ensure all citizens are covered for medical attention when needed, there is need to make screening for some diseases through all medical covers, whether through public or private insurance covers. Some of the screening require inexpensive services that could save lives, reduce progression of treatable conditions and bring comfort...

  DR SWARUP MISHRA He is the Chairman and Founder of Mediheal Group of Hospital s. He traveled from Odisha (formerly Orissa) in eastern India to Kenya, East Africa, and in 1997 alongside his wife who is also a medical practitioner they settled in a town called Eldoret. His medical career in Kenya started with him being employed as a lecturer in one of the local universities. In 2005 he decided to venture into private practice and acquired what is now referred to as the Mediheal Group of Hospitals with hospitals/clinics in the towns of Eldoret , Nakuru,  and Nairobi. Among the services, they provide include laboratory, ART, ENT, physiotherapy, dental, Ophthalmology, Obstetrics & Gynecology, and orthopedics. Dr. Mishra is now settled in Kenya and is even a politician. D R UMESH CHANDRA SAINI The camera-shy and highly private Dr. Saini is the Chairman and Founder of The Nairobi West Hospital. A Kenyan Indian by naturalization, he was born in Kaimganj, Uttar Pradesh, India. He...

Information is power, and so goes the adage. But what information is really needed to ensure equity, access, affordability, and quality of healthcare are availed to all who seek healthcare services? This is a question that any government or investor in service delivery needs to ask and have answers to. One of the greatest determinants of whether implementations are successful or not is the statistics available in decision-making. Reliable, authentic, and factual healthcare statistics and data are crucial in determining factors such as where and in what to invest, resource allocation, policy guidelines, and areas of intervention. Jayesh Saini acknowledges that healthcare statistics cover a very broad spectrum of issues that determine how governments and organisations operate. Giving an example, he pointed out that currently most nations and WHO are giving daily updates on the status of the COVID-19 pandemic giving various statistics such as infections by age, gender, severity, hospitali...

  For some years now, Kenya has been receiving doctors from Cuba and deploying them to various regions and facilities. Many citizens have wondered why this should be so while they believe there are many unemployed medics in the country. Whereas the issue of employment remains a thorny issue, due to the diversity of concerns as to why some are not in employment, we would like to understand the Kenya-Cuba relationship. Cuba is known as having one of the best healthcare delivery systems, which despite challenges has ensured an almost 100% universal coverage. The affordability of the services has greatly been influenced by the great strides in the pharma industry which has allowed for competitive pricing of the medications and pharma products. The Cuban pharmaceutical industry has over 1,200 international patents and sells medicine and equipment to more than 50 countries. The industry is entirely publicly funded and managed with a major goal to develop drugs of strategic importance t...

 On 27 April 2001, African Governments under the AU, in a gathering held in Abuja Nigeria made a historic pledge to allocate at least 15% of their annual budgets to the health sector. This declaration was reached as the AU member states realized that more resources were required to address the ever-pressing health needs, especially with the pressure on resources created by widespread cases of HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis. Twenty years later, the countries have not met this self-set target, especially due to differing priorities that clamor for the limited financial resources. Despite this, it is noteworthy to mention that many countries have a level of increased access to healthcare for their citizens. In many of the countries for example that were greatly affected by the aforementioned diseases, solutions have been found and the diseases are now under control, with fewer cases of fatalities. So, should the AU members be thinking of allocation of 15% of annual budgets or ava...

Health insurance uptake has over the years been very minimal, especially amongst individuals and families. Most of the privately insured are those who get covers through their employers or their SACCOS or social groups. For the rest of the privately insured, the greatest challenge has been the premiums which according to most, are very high. The others have joined the NHIF schemes. The majority of Kenyans access healthcare services using out-of-pocket payments. The introduction of more services and benefits by NHIF has greatly changed the health insurance industry. This is because there now are packages that with minimal contributions one can access medical attention for both in and outpatient services beyond the daily rebate for inpatients. This means that one can be admitted to a government facility and some faith-based facilities and the bill is fully paid for. Photo by  Volodymyr Hryshchenko  on  Unsplash In light of this development, it would be prudent for the p...

One of the greatest challenges in quality healthcare delivery in Africa is not the lack of technology but inadequate human resources, especially amongst the medical personnel where the doctor-nurse, doctor-patient, and nurse-patient ratios are below the recommended by WHO. At the same time, we have a population of unemployed medics in some of our countries. These statements sound like a paradox considering that many medical people especially doctors and nurses are always leaving Africa for Europe and the USA for what has come to be termed as greener pastures. Nurses from Africa are globally known to be very professional and diligent in their patient care. To this end, employment agencies are always looking for nurses in foreign lands. This is especially common among Kenyan and South African nurses. Contributing to the issue that has been a concern in the ever-expanding industry Jayesh Saini notes the various factors affecting this s...

Globally, healthcare systems are in quest of providing appropriate solutions for the myriad of health issues the people are facing. Programs and policies continue to be developed and modify to suit the short- and long-term goals with the overall game plan to attain Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for all. Unfortunately, this is not a smooth journey all the way, even though issues have been different at either various levels of implementation or from region to region. There have been diverse challenges including, lack of adequate finances, disease outbreaks, poor implementation strategies, and mismanagement of resources among others. Looking at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we can see the impact of social determinants that have affected the provision of health services adversely. Main social determinants include geography, climate, economic means, and social and cultural norms. Never in the past was the economic and geograph...

In Africa, most of the health facilities are concentrated in the urban and surrounding areas and generally leave out the rural areas. Unfortunately, these areas are also left out when emergency rescue services setups are considered. These two scenarios have had a negative impact on increased mortality rates especially when there has been an emergency, whether of a sudden disease or a hazard such as a fire or other catastrophe. In some cases, child mortality and mother-child mortalities could have been avoided. Discussing the impact of distance of health facilities on the actualization of UHC, Jayesh Saini said a country cannot purport to have attained UHC if people are travelling more than 5 kilometers to receive the required medical attention, especially primary healthcare. He indicated that such facilities are also owned mostly by private investors and may not even be covered or recognized by national social insurance. This means that any person seeking services in such facilitie...

By nature, human beings are very observant. One of the observations that have been made and questions have arisen is why do policymakers. The Government of Kenya has been accused of the pathetic state of public health facilities in the country. Citizens say that lawmakers and policy formulators (mainly politicians) should not be allowed to access private facilities with taxpayers' money. They should use the public ones so that they can experience what ordinary Kenyans go through every day with a lack of proper services. The citizens believe if such a law is passed, the politicians would be careful to make sure that all health facilities under the county and national governments would be fully functional with the required services and personnel. In the current scenario, they make policies, rules, and regulations that are not enforced and citizens feel this is because this class of people has very good medical covers that they use in high-end private hospitals and out of the countr...

  Fraud is one of the most retrogressive happenings in any sphere of life. Fraud affects all people directly or indirectly. The adverse effect of this in the healthcare industry cannot be over-emphasized. The main participants in fraud cases in healthcare include patients, healthcare service providers, suppliers of goods and services to the sector and brokers. In a nutshell “Fraud in Healthcare Kills”. According to Jayesh Saini, healthcare fraud and corrupt practices ultimately affects the quality and quantity of services delivered, resources utilization, cost of services, time and human resources. In his opinion, this is one of the factors that have played a role in keeping cost of business to remain high and thus the high charges for service. Interestingly, from where he sits, as a consumer of services and an investor in healthcare, every one of the above participants in the sector blames all the others except themselves, making it sometimes difficult to solve the problem. This h...