Uasin Gishu patients’ lives at the mercy of staff

By MICHAEL OLLINGA and SILAH KOSKEI

ELDORET, KENYA: At Huruma District hospital, which serves a high population from Huruma slums and beyond, patients have died from treatable diseases as they awaited medical attention.

 Uasin Gishu County has witnessed several cases of patients being mistreated as they seek medication in hospitals.

A nurse who has been working at Huruma hospital’s injection room but who has since been transferred, told The Counties that she witnessed patients under-dosed and mistreated.

 “Nurses have been charging patients for government drugs and when you report to the hospital superintendent, nothing is done. Instead you are just victimised as a traitor,” she said.

The nurse, whose name we chose not to disclose for her safety, says at times patients who cannot pay for the drugs are asked for any amount of money and given half a dose.

 She recalls how she had to intervene when a woman suffering from tuberculosis (TB) was asked to pay Sh1, 200 for medication by a nurse in charge, yet the government recommends free TB treatment.

The nurse also cited the case of an epileptic child whose referral to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital was delayed. The child died before being attended. The staff offered the hospital ambulance to take the body to the deceased’s home to conceal their ills.

 A former casual worker at the hospital’s revenue office who requested anonymity further revealed how nurses ganged up and locked the ‘uncooperative’ in the injection room.

At Uasin Gishu district hospital, long queues are the order of the day with patients waiting to see one clinical officer who regularly leaves office at will.

 The hospital has two diagnosis rooms that need two clinical officers but in most occasions there is only one medic attending to the patients.

 Ronnie Lang’at, a father of two, says he is dissatisfied with the hospital’s service delivery saying he had stayed long in the queue as there was no one to attend to them.

 Lang’at, who had brought his son for treatment, said the hospital was literally charging every service rendered irrespective of the diagnosis.

 “I have bought all the prescribed drugs and as if that is not enough I have been told to pay Sh20 for the syringe and needle purchase,” he told The Counties at a visit.

 In Elgeyo Marakwet County, patients at Matira dispensary have been regularly tended to by casual staff because trained medical staff often abscond duty.

 Area governor Alex Tolgos recently made an impromptu visit to the dispensary and found out that patients were being injected by a medical records officer because there was no nurse on duty.

 Tolgos admitted that most of the medics in the area abscond or delegate duties to unqualified personnel.

“Every person should follow their job description and not delegate sensitive duties which expose individual’s life to danger,” he said during the marking of the World Aids Day.

 His Uasin Gishu counterpart Jackson Mandago insisted on the devolution of health services, saying it will help curb truancy shown by medics through close monitoring which has been a challenge to the national government.

 LONG QUEUES

He said a recent audit by the county showed that only 12 out of the 74 doctors posted in the area report to work.

 “Most medics rarely go to work while others open health centres very late leading to long queues in the facilities which is against their ethics,” he said.

 He was speaking in reference to a health centre in Burnt Forest area which he ambushed and found that no medical staff had reported to work at 10.00 am.

 Uasin Gishu County director of health Evans Kiprotich echoed Mandago’s sentiments that it will be difficult to improve services at the public health facilities if they remain under the national government.

 “Until now we have not identified the main County hospital, though we are planning to establish one in Huruma grounds because Uasin Gishu District Hospital’s land is in dispute,” he said.

He admitted that absenteeism is a trend in most hospitals but said the county is strategising on curbing the vice.