Ruto says Moi Referral Hospital on verge of collapse

By Edwin Cheserek

Eldoret North MP William Ruto led three MPs on a fact-finding mission of the troubled Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.

Ruto took the management of the hospital to task over the financial crisis it was facing.

Acting director Omar Aly was at pains to explain to the MPs the root of the woes that have threatened to ground operations at the second largest referral hospital in the country.

Eldoret North MP William Ruto talks to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital director Dr Omar Aly on Monday.

Ruto was accompanied on the mission by MPs David Koech (Mosop), Peris Simam (Eldoret South) and Emgwen’s Elijah Lagat.

The leaders said the hospital, which has been experiencing congestion in the wards with patients sharing beds, was on the verge of collapse.

On receiving information that the MPs were to visit the facility, the management ordered for the removal of patients who were sharing beds to show that all was well.

"We have been sharing this bed but in the morning, one of us was taken away. I don’t know where she was taken," a patient at the women’s ward told The Standard.

Dr Aly said entrenched negative ethnicity is the major problem at the institution. He, however, conceded that there is a shortage of drugs, saying the facility had been burdened by a financial crisis that has made it unable to procure drugs.

Last week, he said, they prepared and presented an additional budgetary allocation of Sh200 million to the Treasury.

"We handed it over to the director of budget who promised to present it to the PS and ultimately to the Finance minister," Aly told the MPs.

There was a heated debate when Ruto sought to know if it was true that the current management of the hospital is unable to run it.

The director challenged the remarks saying the allegations were not factual.

"Let us rule out the issue of management from this debate because it cannot solve these problems," he said.

Seeking solutions

Ruto said the facility is much more of a national hospital than a regional one.

"We have not come here to compound the situation but to be part of the solution," he said.

Ruto visits a child in the wards. Photos: Peter Ochieng/Standard

He commented doctors and nurses working at the hospital, saying despite the grave situation they are doing their best to save lives. The legislator expressed concern that politics was to blame, saying it had created a crisis at the institution.

Aly also pointed out that lack of approval for their budgetary needs had contributed to the mess.

"We have done the budgetary provision for the institution but no additional funds were given to us," he said.

Out of the Sh2.1 billion allocated to the hospital in last year’s budget estimates, only 1.2 billion was disbursed, he explained.

However, Aly and the deputy director of finance Agunda Ochanda appeared not to be reading from the same script when they were asked if donors were withdrawing their support.

Aly said the donors were "shying" away while Mr Ochanda was categorical that they had pulled out.

The MPs called for a transparent and competitive process of appointing the hospital chief executive officer.