From sharing beds to sleeping on floor: Inside Mathari Hospital crisis

 

 The main entrance to Mathari National Hospital. [File, Standard]

Lawmakers have expressed concern over the deplorable state of Mathari National Hospital following revelations that mental health patients were forced to sleep on the floor while others shared beds.

The National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee yesterday heard that 60 patients had also been abandoned at the facility while 120 had recovered but were yet to be collected by their next of kin, further straining the already meagre resources at the facility.

This came to light during the Committee’s sitting, where Principal Secretary for the State Department of Medical Services, Ouma Oluga, appeared to answer questions raised by the Office of the Auditor General for the financial year ended June 30, 2024.

In her report, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu highlighted that there are inadequate beds at the hospital, leading to a humanitarian crisis.

She detailed that despite Sh12.6 million having been allocated for renovations of the hospital for the year under review, a review of the daily inpatient attendances indicated the number of patients exceeded the 653 available beds, resulting in patients being kept on the floor or sharing beds for a period of more than 26 days, thereby raising the risk of cross-infection.

“This was contrary to Article 43 (1) (a) of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, which states that every person has the right to the highest attainable standard of health, which includes the right to health care services, including reproductive health care. In the circumstances, management was in breach of the law,” reads the report.

This elicited disquiet from the House team, which sought to understand why, years since its inception, the facility had not been expanded to accommodate more patients and improve the standard of care.

“Why not come up with another facility to replicate Mathari? What happens when eventually it is full to capacity and can no longer accommodate any more mental health patients?” posed the Committee chairperson, Tindi Mwale.

 A section of mentally ill patients under rehabilitation at Mathari Mental Hospital in Nairobi. [File, Standard]

Vice Chairperson Amina Udgoon said the deplorable condition had also been observed in other medical facilities, accusing the State Department of negligence.

“You are killing people who have nothing through negligence. Mothers across the country are finding it very hard because they carry a pregnancy for nine months but the baby dies due to negligence at the facilities or from being asked to share beds. A colleague recently lost their baby. The situation is bad,” Udgoon said.

Turkana Central MP Joseph Emathe decried the lack of sufficient capacity to handle patients, especially across referral hospitals in the country. He noted that patients have, on several occasions, failed to access treatment due to a lack of beds in hospitals.

But in his response, Dr Oluga explained that the lack of adequate beds at Mathari Hospital was attributed to various issues, including a high number of abandoned patients who have recuperated but are yet to be picked up by their next of kin. There is also the fact that, he said, a large number of unknown mentally-ill patients who were brought to the hospital by well-wishers and taken in for treatment, but they have not regained their cognitive functions to remember where they come from.

Oluga also told of a constrained repatriation budget as one recovered patient repatriation exercise has to be accompanied by security personnel, nurses, a psychologist, a social worker and a driver, further constraining the hospital’s human resources.