Problem

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While Americans have 1 doctor for every 300 people, Kenyans have 1 doctor for every 50,000 people. Provider shortages are likely to persist, as many countries do not have the means to train adequate numbers of healthcare personnel. Although many Kenyans live in rural villages, most doctors are located in urban areas.  Because access to doctors is so limited, Kenyans rarely have medical attention when needed, and often wait until the last minute to seek medical care.  It is rare that a person in Kenya would have the chance to visit a doctor for a simple checkup.

Mansali’s Story
In a common occurrence, a mother of three, Mansali, has many barriers standing between her family and a doctor.  She has had a cough for about a month and her daughter started coughing earlier in the week.  There are no doctors in her village, or nearby town.  She and her three small children need to walk 1 hour to the taxi stop and then ride the taxi for two hours to reach the hospital.  Once they reach the hospital, they will most likely need to wait in line for 2-3 hours to see the doctor.  It costs 2 days pay for Mansali to take her family to the hospital and back, while she will miss an additional day of work while traveling.  Mansali does not have the money to go to the expensive private clinic with shorter lines.  She worries about the medicines and return visits the doctor at the hospital might recommend.  For these reasons and others, Mansali has put off going to the doctor to have herself and children examined.  Her cough is only getting worse, and now that her daughter is coughing, she is very concerned, but Mansali decides to wait a while longer and see if the coughs subside.

Individual Kenyans, like Mansali, experience many barriers to healthcare.  Kenyans spend up to two days’ pay and four hours traveling to reach a doctor.  After spending their scarce resources to access a doctor, a patient is not even guaranteed time with the doctor.  Spending their limited financial resources on travel, as well as stopping any incoming generating activities for the many hours or days to visit an doctor, is a great burden on Kenyan families.  Sometimes this burden prevents families from ever visiting a doctor, and often the decision to seek professional help is made too late.