County adopts home-based care for Covid-19 patients

Stanbic Bank Naivasha branch manager Ken Mucheni and the President of Rotary in Naivasha, Billy Mungai, hand over water tanks and sanitisers to the superintendent of Naivasha sub-County Hospital Dr Angeline Ithondeka and the sub-county public health officer George Ndichu. The tanks will be used in designated areas including the newly opened Inland Container Depot in Mai Mahiu. [Antony Gitonga, Standard]

Nakuru County government is working to adopt and domesticate home-based care for coronavirus patients to decongest health facilities as cases reported countrywide increase.

The county's Chief Officer of Public Health, Samuel King'ori, said a programme to train health care workers to handle positive patients at home kicked off last week.

At least 30 health care workers in respective cadres, among them nurses, clinical and public health officers drawn from across the county, have been trained on the Covid-19 pandemic home-based care protocols.

The training is conducted by epidemiologists and virologists in collaboration with the county department of health and Ministry of Health.

"Though Nakuru does not have an upsurge in the number of Covid-19 cases, we are training health care workers, who will be a link to communities in case we get people who will require management at home," said King'ori.

The training comes a week after the Ministry of Health launched home-based care protocols.

Head of Public Health Francis Kuria said the initiative was aimed at decongesting hospitals, as priority will be given to critically ill patients.

The guidelines explain criteria for release of patients for home-based care, medical monitoring, and the referral system to health facilities.

Dr Kuria said those who cannot afford isolation at their homes because of limited space will be placed in a facility within the community that meets recommendations for home-based care.

According to the World Health Organisation, more than 80 per cent of cases in health facilities are asymptomatic and can be managed at home with minimal risk of infection.

During a training held over the weekend at Red Cross grounds in Nakuru, Philip Muthoka, from the Ministry of Health’s Disease Surveillance and Response Unit, commended the county for setting up strict public health measures against the Covid-19 pandemic.

He asked locals to abide by set guidelines to minimise community transmissions.

“Fighting Covid-19 needs to be everyone's business. For instance, we do not need policing to wash our hands with soap and water, keep social distancing and wear face masks. These are simple regulations that we should all observe," said Dr Muthoka.

Nakuru has a total of 10 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds set aside for management of Covid-19 patients, in addition to three High Dependency Unit.

According to health records, there are additional nine ICU beds at Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital being used by patients suffering from other ailments.  

There are also 40 ventilators at the Nakuru Level Five Hospital.

The county, which relies on the Kenya Medical Research Institute to test Covid-19 cases, is planning to install TB testing machines with cartridges to start doing their own tests. Currently, samples are extracted at Naivasha Hospital, Nakuru Level Five Hospital and Mai Mahiu Hospital. 

King'ori said there are a total of six machines, one at a private facility and five others in respective county hospitals.

A single machine can process up to 500 samples daily.

Currently, there are 175 isolation beds distributed across Nakuru Level Five Hospital, Gilgil Hospital, Naivasha Hospital, PGH Annex, Langa Langa Health Centre and Molo Hospital.

Plans are underway to increase isolation beds to at least 1,000.

The county has identified the Sh600 million outpatient unit under construction at the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital as a Covid-19 isolation centre.

To help in the Covid-19 preparedness, the county has already been given Sh201 million by the national government.

Currently, there are at least nine active Covid-19 cases in the county.