At the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) labour ward, an expectant woman clutches her stomach in pain and looks helplessly at the nurses and doctors rushing past her. Not a single one looks in her direction despite her frantically waving at them.
“There is an emergency somewhere, we will come back and check on you later,” one doctor tells her then hurriedly walks away.
She lets out a groan, and reaches out to another pregnant woman who holds her hand and directs her towards a hospital bench.
In one corner, several beds are clumped together in an open space and pregnant women are huddled on them as they wait for delivery.
Just a few metres away there are several other women in different stages of labour, and it is obvious that the current strike by county doctors has overwhelmed the biggest referral hospital in the country.
Along the corridors, patients lie in beds scattered all over the congested hospital. A high school student in school uniform lies still on one of the beds surrounded by her school mates. They watch as her chest heaves up and down and keep assuring her that “she is going to be okay”.
She does not respond. She stares at the intravenous fluids dripping slowly into her arms. Her school mates whisper among themselves then push her into one of the many rooms in the vast hospital. “We are looking for a doctor,” one of them says as they wheel her away.
All over the hospital, patients and their relatives pace aimlessly, seeking medical help, with some saying they have spent the entire day at the facility without getting help.
“I went to Mbagathi hospital, but I was advised to come here because doctors at county hospitals are on strike. I need to have a chest X-ray done, but the queue is too long. I was here before 6am, and it seems like I will go back home without treatment,” said Peter Wanjohi.
Things are bad
In the recovery ward, Room 5, where women who have delivered are taken for monitoring, the floor is lined with several mattresses being shared by the new mothers. The beds cannot contain all of them, and some have to sleep on the floor as they wait for the bed occupants to be discharged.
“Things are bad. Right now, if you give birth, they do not even allow you to stay in the hospital for more than a day. You are discharged immediately to create space for other patients,” said a patient.
She added that even though the doctors and nurses are trying their best to attend to them, it is obvious that they cannot control the large number that they are confronted with.
Outside, a man stands next to a squatting child who is throwing up on the grass. The impact of his body shaking from the nausea causes him to fall on the mess he has made.
“It must be malaria, we are waiting for him to be tested. The rain has affected so many children, and they are getting very sick,” said the child’s father, Willis Oloo, while wiping his son.
KNH Chief Executive Officer Lily Koros acknowledged that the hospital is overwhelmed as a result of the strike. But she said they are trying their best to find solutions to the current situation. She said their focus was to attend to emergency patients and pregnant women.
“It is quite unfortunate, but we are trying our best to attend to the patients. We are getting short term medics to fill in, especially in the labour ward to prevent the KNH doctors from getting fatigued,” she said.
Kenya National Union of Nurses Secretary General Seth Panyako said the mess at KNH is a manifestation of the failed devolved system in the department of health.
He added that county nurses were on strike for more than two months, and even though they resumed work yesterday, it took long for the issue to be sorted out. According to him, the disbandment of the referral system has also played a part in the failing health system.