It is unusual for VIPs to walk into a public hospital to seek treatment. Most politicians and their families can afford private facilities and have medical coverage for that.
But Dr. Kidero said he woke up feeling unwell and decided to go to the hospital run by the county government.
He arrived in a black Mercedes Benz without his security in tow. Usually, the hospital has a lot of people on Mondays.
Dr Kidero was however lucky in that, the human traffic was low due to the festive season.
His details were quickly taken at the triage area before he was referred to a clinical officer.
According to the former governor, medical workers at the hospital are qualified with requisite knowledge on how to handle different health situations but only need the proper motivation to work better.
He however expressed concerns about the slow process of offering services due to the absence of tools.
He challenged Governor Gladys Wanga to boost health care service provision by ensuring tools used at the hospital are available at all times.
“I did not come to criticize how medical workers are providing services to patients. But my observation is that there needs to be an improvement in health service provision,” Dr. Kidero said.
At the outpatient unit, he had his blood pressure checked. A clinical officer then directed him to the laboratory to collect his blood sample for testing.
At the lab, Dr. Kidero was told to wait as health workers were sourcing for gloves before his blood sample was collected.
“Results are not yet out. I will be contacted to collect them,” he said.
Dr. Kidero was also faced with difficulties when paying for the services.
Homa Bay County government recently introduced a digital revenue collection system hoping to deal with the fraudulent loss of funds.
At the hospital, patients are required to pay for services using their mobile phones.
Dr Kidero said he had no money in his phone when he walked into the hospital.
He added that the system cannot work well for patients who do not know how to use the digital revenue collection system.
He tried using his credit cards which cashiers at the health facility rejected.
“I had to ask for assistance from someone who had money in his phone. Old people who do not have phones are likely to be blocked from accessing health services,” he said.
In other areas of automation, Dr. Kidero called on governor Wanga to train health workers to be faster.
According to him, some of the workers were slow when putting in patients’ information on the computer.
“The hospital requires quite a lot of improvements. There are a lot of things that need to be done,” Dr. Kidero said.
During his visit, Dr. Kidero also visited some patients in ward three. Among them was a patient who had undergone a CT scan in Kisumu.
Homa Bay County is yet to offer the service as patients are referred to Kisumu or Eldoret.
Some patients claimed they have not been visited by doctors for hours.
Dr. Kidero sought answers from county health Executive Roseline Omollo and chief officer Kevive Osuru who failed to pick up his calls.
“Public servants should not work under political influence. There is no reason why they should not pick up calls,” he said.
Governor Wanga has always insisted that better health service provision is her number one priority.
Since being elected in August, she had made steps in ensuring county residents get better health services.
In 100 days, she built a comprehensive out-patients unit at the referral hospital.
“We have also supplied drugs to all hospitals across the county. We are working on addressing other matters such as cancer care and procuring a CT scan machine,” she said last week when delivering her 100-day in-office report.
