Two dead as nurses’ strike enters day six

Two patients have died in different hospitals in Mombasa County as the nurses strike continues.

A four-year-old pneumonia patient, who was being treated at the Port Reitz District Hospital, died on Saturday after health services there were shut down due to the nurses’ strike which entered its sixth day yesterday.

According to sources at the hospital, the child died after nurses failed to attend to him.

“His mother is traumatised. There is no greater pain than the death of a child, it is sad. He was doing well but when the nurses went on strike things became worse, he died in his sleep,” said an official, who requested anonymity.

In the second case, Ms Grace Akinyi, a grandmother of a nine-year-old, said the Coast General and Referral Hospital management told her to leave the hospital while her grandchild was in critical condition.

“He had been in the oxygen machine at the emergency ward since Thursday. I was asked by some of the officials to seek alternative services at private hospitals due to the strike,” said Ms Akinyi. “They removed the machine and the child’s condition worsened. I took a tuk tuk and rushed him to a private hospital where they asked for Sh100,000.”

Ms Akinyi said she took another ambulance and went back to Coast General Hospital and pleaded with the doctors to admit the Class Four pupil at St Kevin Academy Primary School in Kiembeni.

“I was sent away the second time. My son’s conditioned had worsened, and he later died in an Intensive Care Unit at Pandya Hospital on Saturday. Governor Hassan Joho helped us to transport his body to Migori for burial. My son wouldn’t have died had he been treated immediately,” she said.

Meanwhile, inpatient and maternity services at all public hospitals in Coast were shut down yesterday.

At Tudor District Hospital, the guards sent away patients who had thronged the facility.
“I am sorry I cannot let you in because there are no services. There is no doctor or nurse. Go to private hospitals,” a guard was heard telling some patients.
Mr Musa Kalume, one of the patients, said he did not have money for a private hospital.

At Port Reitz District Hospital, the maternity and paediatric wings were deserted, with the cholera isolation ward remaining with only one patient.

“There are two clinical officers who are on standby. Outpatient is working but we have instructions to send emergency cases away. Inpatient cannot work without nurses. Maternity and paediatric wards do not have any patients. In the male and female wards, there is one patient each,” said a source at the hospital.

PRIVATE HEALTH CENTRES

It was the same case at the Coast General and Referral Hospital, where guards advised patients to go to private health centres.
“Even if I let you in, you will end up dying because there are no services,” a guard told an expectant woman.

On Saturday, Mr Joho visited the hospital and instructed the administration to employ 20 locum (temporary) nurses.

However, when Nation visited the hospital yesterday, there were no signs of nurses.

The governor had been accompanied by MPs Abdullswamad Nassir (Mvita), Badi Twalib (Jomvu), Rashid Bedzimba (Kisauni) and Woman Representative Mishi Mboko.

Mr Joho assured the nurses that their uniform allowances had already been included in their April pay.

The county government had asked the nurses to resume work or they be sacked.

County secretary Hamisi Mwaguya dismissed the nurses’ demands as impossible to meet and unreasonable.

County health director Khadija Shikelly said only Tudor, Likoni, Port Reitz and Coast General hospitals had been affected by the strike.

She said the county government would hire 50 nurses among 500 applicants following a recent advertisement. She said the interviews would be conducted on April 27.

However, Kenya National Union of Nurses (Knun) has said sacking striking nurses would be counterproductive.

“Issuing threats is like adding petrol to a fire that is already consuming the healthcare sector. We are not moved, we will continue to fight,” said Mombasa branch Knun secretary Peter Maroko.

He went on: “The county government does not have any authority to sack any devolved staff. So Governor Joho has no authority to sack us unless he goes through the due process of the law. Hopefully today (Monday) we will sort out the issue.”