Patients return home as doctors stay away

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Doctors on standby at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi on September 12, 2011. PHOTO/STEPHEN MUDIARI  

By NATION TEAM
Posted  Friday, September 14  2012 at  23:30

IN SUMMARY

• Only Kenya Medical Training College students, Kenya Red Cross volunteers, nurses and clinical officers were attending to patients but they complained of the heavy workload.

Services were paralysed at the Coast General Hospital in Mombasa for the second day as doctors continued with a crippling strike.

People seeking treatment sat forlornly in the waiting area in vain as the 30 doctors at the hospital vowed to stay away from work until the government met their pay demands.

The situation was not much different in Kisumu.

Patients had to wait for longer periods as they were attended to by a few consultants.

Emergency case

A Kisumu District Hospital official said the doctors are reporting for duty but not working. “Only a few consultants and clinical officers are working,” he said.

At Lodwar referral hospital, operations seemed to be going on normally.

A nurse, Ms Alice Lomoe, said they decided to continue working as they could not stand the sight of suffering patients.

“Patients’ health is our absolute priority. We have been clear throughout that any emergency case, or other urgent care, will be provided. We are, however, doing this with extreme reluctance,” she said.

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Patients, however, said they were not being attended and doctors were just loitering around the hospital.

At Nakuru’s Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital, patients continued to bear the brunt of the strike.

Most sick people had to return home after waiting in vain to be attended.

Mr Peter Njenga said he had taken a relative to the hospital for treatment but found there were no doctors to attend to him.

“I have no money to take my relative to a private hospital. Going back home is the only option. I hope the doctor-government stalemate ends soon,” he said.

Only Kenya Medical Training College students, Kenya Red Cross volunteers, nurses and clinical officers were attending to patients but they complained of the heavy workload.

The industrial action called by Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentist Union has plunged the health sector into a crisis.