Richard Leresian Lesiyampe, chief executive of Kenyatta National Hospital.
By NATION REPORTER
Posted Sunday, April 22 2012 at 12:15
Posted Sunday, April 22 2012 at 12:15
About 98 per cent of patients occupying terminal medical facilities at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) are road accident victims, chief executive officer Mr Richard Lesiyampe has said.
“As a national referral hospital managing other terminal medical conditions, the continued disruption caused by road traffic accident victims, is alarming and its high time we step out to seek a multi-sector approach to curb these accidents,” Lesiyampe said.
With about 30 Critical Care Unit (CCU) beds meant to provide life saving support for critically ill patients, Lesiyampe pointed out that road accident victims have occupied the facilities at the expense of open-heart surgery, kidney transplants and neuro-surgeries patients who highly depend on this facility.
"At this point, it is prudent for the traffic police to resume random alco-blow tests as we have enough evidence to confirm that most of these road accidents are caused by drunk driving," he said.
Lesiyampe said the hospital had received 216 road accident victims in the month of April.
"This means KNH is receiving at least 10 patients a day, translating to 70 road accident victims every week and spending more than Sh10 million in avoidable costs further leading to congestion at the national facility" he said.
Due to its proximity and public status, KNH receives the bulk of road accident victims from Nairobi and its environs; a region with the highest rate of road accidents.
Even as KNH remains the preferred public facility, Lesiyampe has also called for good Samaritans to consider seeking first aid help at the nearest medical facilities to help save lives.
Speaking from his office, Lesiyampe said the facility had received 40 accident victims within 12 hours on Saturday night, arising from multiple road accidents.
Such a high toll, Lesiyampe said is also placing a heavy physical strain on KNH and University of Nairobi School of Health Sciences medical staff who are now tirelessly working to save lives round the clock.
Research conducted by KNH notes that about 55 per cent of road users are visually impaired and not fit to drive at night, a concern that could be causing the rising road accidents alongside alcohol abuse.
High cost of medical expenses
From a social economic perspective, Lesiyampe said the management of road accident victims remains a highly expensive and disruptive effort given that normal services such as scheduled theatre services have to be postponed to attend to the critically injured victims.
The cost on the economy is also high as accident victims management involves Intensive Care Unit facilities, expensive medical consumables and recalling of off duty clinical staff to attend to the injured.
Lack of proper medical finance schemes has also put a heavy financial strain on KNH as most of the patients rushed there can ill afford to pay for the services.
The cumulative national losses accruing from road accidents, Lesiyampe noted should now serve as a wake-up call to fast-track the adoption of a stringent national road safety policy.
“It can't be business as usual when the country continues to lose heavily in terms of lost man hours, heavy medical expenses not to mention the pain and anguish to relative due to avoidable road accidents,” Lesiyampe noted. "Such a policy spelling out serious punitive measures against drunk driving and general careless driving while stressing the need for visual impairment checks and mandatory first aid training should be prioritised.”
With the current state of affairs, Lesiyampe called for a speedy enactment of a Public Hospitals Insurance Scheme to cover rising costs as most accident victims rushed to KNH can hardly afford to pay for the medical services.
As part of a strategic service improvement programme, KNH is set to construct a Sh270 million day care facility to relieve the strain caused by road accidents among other non-referral cases.
“We expect the construction and equipping of this facility to cost about Sh270 million fully sourced from private sector support. This project has already received a Sh100 million boost,” Lesiyampe said.
Such a centre, will provide services for minor healthcare problems, which can be managed within a day or two.
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