Where is the Sh12m? Shame of frontline medics not yet housed

The ministry on April 7 announced a Sh12 million plan to accommodate the health workers, but this is yet to be done.

Nearly two months since the announcement of the country’s first Covid-19 case, the Ministry of Health is yet to offer accommodation for the frontline health workers, potentially jeopardising the fights against the disease’s spread.

This is despite a pledge by government officials on April 7 that arrangements had been made to ensure the healthcare workers, who are at the greatest risk of contracting and subsequently transmitting the disease, will be accommodated in selected hotels to prevent their interaction with their families and the rest of the public.

The ministry informed the public that a team at the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council chaired by Dr Eva Njenga had already identified “suitable accommodation for healthcare workers”.

“They are working hard to get extra facilities so that healthcare workers who come in contact with these patients don’t go home, to prevent cross-contamination with members of their families and the public,” said Acting Director-General in the ministry, Dr Patrick Amoth.

But the Saturday Standard has learnt that these accommodation facilities, except for one, are non-existent, despite Permanent Secretary Susan Mochache informing a parliamentary committee that Sh12 million from the Covid-19 response fund had been earmarked for this purpose. While Ms Mochache made her presentation, Hadassah Hotel along Nairobi’s Ralphe Bunche Road which is one of the facilities mentioned by the Government to accommodate hospital staff, had already been receiving guests, only these guests were not frontline health workers but rather officers from the ministry on a Sh5,000 a day tab.

“We are fully booked and occupied at the moment by some officers from the Ministry of Health,” said a receptionist at the hotel.

Rapid response teams

On probing further, representatives of the various cadres of medics, such as clinical officers, were not certain of who the officers at Hadassah are, since the medics working in isolation and quarantine facilities were yet to be provided with accommodation.

“Only rapid response teams and their contacts in surveillance are being accommodated at Hadassah,” said Peterson Wachira, the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers Chairman.

Accommodating medics working at the high risk areas like isolation units separately and away from the general public was meant to contain the spread of the virus. This measure is mentioned as a key intervention in the State’s Covid-19 Master Plan.

However, the lack of such measures has already led to the spread of the virus in densely populated areas where a volunteer at the Public Health Emergency Operation Centre tested positive. The health worker, identified in government documents as Case 189, unfortunately transmitted the disease to 14 other people.

Had she been accommodated separately with proper monitoring, her contact list would have been much shorter than the 29 individuals now traced back to her. Their chain of transmission is yet to be concluded, as contact tracing for all of them is ongoing.

By virtue of working in a high risk area, a security guard at the National Public Health Lab from Kibra also tested positive for Covid-19. It is not clear if, or how many more people contracted the disease from this particular case since his contact tracing is still ongoing.

Half board

The Health PS, in a response to the Senate, said they had procured half board accommodation for 30 frontline healthcare workers for 90 days at Sh12 million. From the report, an average of 32 workers had been accommodated per day for four weeks, which would already cost Sh4.48 million, payment that was in the process of being paid out.

Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union Acting Secretary General Chibanzi Mwachonda said doctors working in Mbagathi Hospital and Kenyatta National Hospital still go back to their homes after leaving the isolation units. The KPMDU recommends that doctors seeing Covid-19 patients be provided with accommodation and be tested before they go back to their families. Nurses too say none of their frontline staff has been offered government-funded accommodation.

“The Ministry of Health should tell us who has been accommodated because none of the frontline nurses is accommodated,” said Alfred Obengo, National Nurses Association of Kenya Chairman.

KNH has two 3-bedroom houses at Sun View Estate near Kenyatta Market, where workers at Mbagathi isolation unit can rest and change.

“It’s like a call house, not for accommodation, because we still go home to our families,” said a staff at Mbagathi isolation unit who sought anonymity for fear of victimisation.

Mbagathi has 20 nurses running the Covid-19 response. They are assisted by six doctors that shuffle between Mbagathi and KNH. These numbers do not include support staff such as security guards and cleaners, whose daily jobs also put them at high risk.

Another hotel, The Royal Tulip in Kilimani has been identified by KNH. It is not clear whether the money KNH will use to offset the bills is from the same Sh12 million pool the PS was talking about.

Mombasa Beach Hotel by the Coast General Hospital will house similar staff in need of quarantine.

When asked, Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council Chief Executive Officer Daniel Yumbya said the council had indeed identified the two hotels, Hadassah and Royal Tulip.

“KNH has a facility for isolation of healthcare workers confirmed to have the virus,” Yumbya said.