Eight people die in Kenya as medics strike paralyses public health sector

At least eight patients died yesterday across the country as doctors and nurses made good their threat to go on strike.

The strike paralysed medical services in public hospitals in all counties. In what can be only be described as characteristic of a sick nation, a male guard at Bungoma

County Referral Hospital helped deliver ababy boy. And Elizabeth Karimi was forced to give birth at the gate of Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital after she was released due to the ongoing strike.

In Murang’a, an expectant mother gave birth unattended at the gate of the Murang’a District Hospital yesterday afternoon as health workers chanted liberation songs nearby.

Mental health institutions in Nairobi and Mombasa were affected by the strike.

Dozens of mental illness patients at Port Reitz Hospital in Mombasa were released to their relatives following the strike.

In Nairobi, authorities were last evening looking for at least 70 mentally ill patients who escaped from Mathari Hospital.

The situation is likely to continue following the collapse of talks between the nurses, Council of Governors and the State.

At the Kiambu Level 4 Hospital, two patients reportedly died as health workers downed their tools.

The two were admitted to the Nyayo Ward and are believed to have died yesterday.

The hospital management, however, declined to confirm the deaths promising to issue a statement later.

On the first day of their industrial action, officials of the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Pharmacists Union (KMPDU) said the implementation of a 2013 CBA holds the key to unlocking the pay impasse that has caused a crisis in public hospitals and thrown the country’s health sector into disarray.

The union leaders addressed hundreds of striking doctors in Nairobi, before leading them into the streets to voice their grievances over the non-implementation of the agreement, which awarded them a 300 per cent salary hike.

At the Nanyuki Teaching and Referral Hospital, a body was left lying in the wards for hours as relatives of the deceased sought help to have it moved to the morgue.

Mr James Kariuki, a son of the deceased, said his father died on Sunday night but there was no one to move the body to the morgue.

“This is an agonising case and we are calling on the Government to do all that is possible to ensure the strike ends,” said Kariuki.

According to Kariuki, two more bodies were still lying in hospital’s beds, even as relatives were denied permission to transfer them to a morgue outside the facility.

The narrative of death and despair continued at the Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital where two critically ill patients reportedly died at the women’s ward yesterday.

While sources at the hospital did not confirm whether the deaths were attributed to the strike, it is believed that the patients, like many others at the facility, had been unattended to since midnight on Sunday.

Matters were not any different at the Naivasha sub-county hospital, where two patients, a man and a woman are said to have died the weekend after nurses went on strike on Friday. This came even as the facility moved to admit a limited number of patients that are seriously ill as the health crisis deepened.

Confirming the strike, the superintendent in charge of the hospital Dr Joseph Mburu said that over 150 nurses and doctors had downed their tools.

He confirmed the deaths of the two patients but was quick to note that the duo had been ailing for some time.

“Two people died over the weekend and this had nothing to do with the ongoing strike by the nurses,” he said.

In Molo, at least three patients were allegedly locked up in wards at the sub-county hospital in Nakuru over accumulated bills.

The ailing patients’ health continued to deteriorate as health workers kept off following the ongoing strike as relatives were not allowed to transfer them to seek treatment in private facilities.

Moses Nd’ungu, 30, a patient in Ward 3, told The Standard that he underwent an operation last Wednesday but has since been abandoned due to the strike. Ndung’u’s condition is worsening given that his wound has not been dressed, posing the danger of re-infection.

The patient had accumulated a bill of Sh20,000 after undergoing an operation of the appendix at the hospital.

“The operation was successful but immediately the strike commenced, nurses who were dressing my wound requested me to seek services in a private hospital. But I do not have money to clear the current bill,” said Ndung’u from his hospital bed.

Another patient, Haron Kimutai, was admitted at the hospital on Thursday night after he got a fracture on his right leg but he has not been assisted. Kimutai said the hospital management is also not providing patients with meals.

“Health workers have left us here to die because nobody is attending to us. To add to our misery, the hospital is dark at night,” he said.

Milka Wanjiru urged the hospital management to discharge her 10-year-old boy who has been detained at the hospital. The hospital is demanding Sh12,000 from the patient who underwent operation of the appendix.

The hospital in charge, Dr Dominic Mburu, dismissed allegations that power had been disconnected in the wards, but did not respond as to why they had detained the patients despite not receiving any services.

Meanwhile, newborn babies will be forced to wait longer before receiving vaccination because the ongoing health workers strike in the country.

In Nakuru, mothers at ante-natal clinics were being forced to go back home as facilities remained closed with no nurses and doctors to attend to them.

Mary Kiprono was turned away from Njoro Hospital where she had taken her one-week-old baby to receive BGC and polio vaccines.

Kiprono, who gave birth at home, said she will be forced to wait longer because of financial frustrations that cannot allow her seek the service in a private hospital.

“I gave birth at home safely but I have been turned away by administration when I brought my baby for vaccination,” said the mother.

Reports by Mercy Kahenda, Anthony Gitonga, Job Weru, Ndung’u Wainaina