Nakuru County government transfers patients to private hospitals

NAKURU, KENYA: Critically ill patients at the Nakuru Provincial General Hospital (PGH) have been transferred to private hospitals in Nakuru town and its environs for further treatment.

Area Governor, Kinuthia Mbugua ordered for ambulances from the Red Cross and private hospitals to pick the patients to save them as medical staff in government health facilities downed their tools in a nationwide strike that started Tuesday.

Mbugua who promised to pay for their bills noted with concern that doctors were going against their oath ought by abandoning patients to die in the hospital.

The governor urged supporting staff to maintain cleanliness at the facility and feed the remaining patients promising to provide assistance to crucial needs at the hospital.

He further reiterated that the demands the medics were making were genuine and should be resolved through dialogue but not through the strike that has paralyzed services at government health facilities in the county.

South Rift Kenya Practitioner and Dentist Union secretary general, Dr. Samuel Oroko said they were not ready to negotiate with the county government but the central government that was forcing them to be absorbed by the county government.

Oroko warned that if no gazette notice will be issued to reverse the transfer of personal emoluments for health personnel to county government, they will continue with the strike.

Patients at the hospital urged the government to hasten the process and address the health workers demands to avert the crisis before it gets out of hand.

-KNA