Resolve wrangles at top hospital immediately

The Nairobi Hospital in Upper Hill, Nairobi. [Phillip Orwa, Standard]

News that workers at the Nairobi Hospital had contracted cholera recently shocked many. Not because cholera is a strange disease, but because it was beyond the imagination of many that such a premier medical institution could be associated with a disease that thrives in unhygienic conditions.

As if that was not bad enough, the hospital, owned by the Kenya Hospital Association, is engulfed in leadership wrangles that could topple it from its perch at the top of best performers. This should not be allowed to happen because avenues for dialogue through which outstanding issues could be resolved exist.

The Nairobi Hospital’s CEO has been sacked and so have some Directors who were kicked out by irate stakeholders. Nairobi Hospital has for long been our pride with its personalized patient care, host of specialists and a dedicated staff; so much that when Tanzanian Opposition leader Tundu Lissu was shot 16 times, got 8 bullets lodged in his body and was left for dead outside his house in Dodoma, Tanzania, in September 2017, he was flown to Kenya for treatment.  Seven bullets were successfully removed here. While being discharged, he thanked the doctors at Nairobi Hospital for saving his life. “I came here half-dead, my limbs and organs in very bad shape,” he said.

Since its establishment in 1954, the hospital has grown in stature as a premier referral hospital in the East and Central Africa region, a role that should not be compromised by leadership wrangles.