St Mary's Hospital slowly gaining shape months after take over

The St Mary’s Mission Hospital in Gilgil. [Kipsang Joseph/Standard]

The St Mary’s Mission Hospital, Gigil, is slowly regaining its good repute six months after the takeover by Assumption Sisters of Nairobi.

The nuns took over management of the hospital in Gilgil last January 19 from Father William Charles Fryda following a court order.

The order was issued by Nakuru Environment and Lands Court in September 2017 after a bruising seven-year dispute between the nuns and the American priest.

The dispute put a dent on the hospital and the services it offered. Its reputation also took a beating, as patients sought services elsewhere. Only a few patients remained in the hospital.

During the take-over, which was marred by chaos, the nuns claimed some hospital equipment was looted.

“We discovered there was massive looting of hospital equipment during the take-over, we had only 10 patients remaining in the wards,” said Wangui Kamau, the hospital's manager at Gilgil.

According to Ms Kamau, some theatre and laboratory equipment went missing at the height of the dispute.

So dire was the situation that not even a minor surgery or simple test could be conducted at the facility.

“Some sections of the hospital were grounded; the theatre could not operate and the laboratory had no equipment, we could not do anything. The situation then was frightening,” she said.

Recovered equipment

The new management at Gigil had to rely on the main St Mary's hospital in Nairobi to restore operations.

The Standard visited the hospital last week and established that it was slowly regaining its footing.

“We recovered some theatre equipment and are now able to conduct major and minor operations,” she said.

The hospital has used millions of shillings to regain its footing. According to the administrators, more than Sh26 million has been used to acquire new theatre equipment and surgical sets.

Another Sh20Million was spent on laboratory equipment.

The facility's image is slowly getting restored, and patients are trickling back. The hospital now receives an average of 150 out patients per day.

Over 30 patients are currently admitted in its 120-capacity wards.

“The numbers were low, but consistently increasing,” said the hospital's manager.