State on the spot over failure to train nurses on new equipment
Nurses camp at Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu's Afya House office. They sought to know the fate of the stalled training programme on new hospital equipment. PHOTO | MAGDALENE WANJA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The programme was launched in May 2016 and nurses were nominated to undergo the training.
- The government was required pay for their training fees and cater for all their training expenses, including accommodation.
- However, this was never done, leaving the nurses stranded.
- The training was to go hand in hand with the rolling out of the equipment .
The government is yet again on the spot over non-payment of facilitation fees for a specialised training programme for nurses.
The Equipment Service Programme (MES) was meant to arm a select group of nurses with skills to handle and operate sensitive and crucial theatre equipment, including dialysis machines and ventilators for intensive care units.
But according to the National Nurses Association, the programme has stalled, because the government failed to pay facilitation fees to the institutions that were to carry out the training and to the nurses attending the training.
The programme was launched in May 2016 when the government asked county health chief officers to nominate nurses to undergo the training.
An official communication to that effect was contained in a circular dated May 5, 2016 and signed by Health Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri.
Among others, the group was also to be trained in nephrology nursing, critical care nursing, paediatric critical care nursing, general paediatric nursing and perioperative nursing.
The selected nurses were required to report to various training stations at the beginning of October 2016, based on an agreement that the government would pay for their training fees and cater for all their training expenses, including accommodation.
NURSES STRANDED
However, according to the nurses association, this was never done, leaving the nurses stranded.
No payment was made to the training institutions for the programme, according to association’s chairman Alfred Obengo.
The association claims that as a result, the programme has stalled, with external trainers who had been hired by the training institutions keeping away since they have not been paid.
“We reported to our various training stations but we had to look for our accommodation which we are now unable to cater for.
“We have made several trips to Afya House but we have had nobody to address us,” Mr Obengo told Nation.
Among institutions that were picked to run the programme were Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Kenyatta National Hospital and Nakuru Medical Training College.
EQUIPMENT ROLL-OUT
Efforts to get a comment from Dr Muraguri were unsuccessful as he did not respond to calls or text messages.
According to Mr Obengo, the training was to go hand in hand with the rolling out of the equipment since one needs specialised training to operate them.
“It’s a matter of life and death,” he said.
He said many counties now claim that they are operating theatre equipment yet they have no staff to handle them because the training is yet to be completed.
He criticised the government for spending millions of money to purchase the equipment but failing to train the specialists.
“It is either the equipment are being run by quacks or they are just stored in the hospitals since no specialists have been trained on their operation.
“The worrying bit is that members of the public cannot tell if the machines are being run by professionals,” said Mr Obengo.
He added said some governors are now using the programme as a campaign tool to gain political mileage.
