Looming health crisis as walk-in patients barred from KNH starting July – The Informer

The country is staring at a looming national health crisis of the would-be unattended critical patients without recommendation of transfer to the national referral hospital, Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) if plans by the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) effective July this year are actualised.

With the prevailing condition of inadequate infrastructural health system to accommodate the spillover, patients risk being condemned to fate due to inability to pay for health services in private hospitals amid biting inflation levels.

NMS Director-General Mohamed Badi said KNH will close its doors to walk-in patients as a decongestion strategy to allow the facility deal with referral cases only.

Despite the need to decongest the national referral facility, majority of those who seek medical services at KNH are majority poor drawn across the country suffering terminal ailments whose cost of treatment are comparatively high in private facilities.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health indicate that KNH handles over 1000 out-patient cases.

Some patients wait on the queue for days awaiting medical attention.

“In conjunction with the Ministry of Health, we have been able to produce a policy document on referral system in Kenya. Nairobi County will be used as a guinea pig as the first county to implement this strategy to ensure that KNH becomes a teaching and referral hospital only,” Badi said earlier today while launching a blood donation center in Kayole, Nairobi.

He added: “the government has reviewed the strategy of the referral system currently in place and as a county we will be the first to implement it. As NMS we want city residents to seek services to the 24 facilities which will open by July,” said Badi.

With health being a devolved function, county governments across the country are yet to develop prerequisite supportive health infrastructure to ease pressure from Nairobi.

Effectively, the new development would allow the country’s biggest hospital to concentrate on referral cases only.

The construction of the Sh2 billion new hospitals, which began in  August last year is aimed at increasing Nairobi’s bed capacity as well as alleviating the need for patients to rush KNH even with minor injuries.

With only less than two months to the deadline, NMS has only fully completed less than five out of the twenty four new Level II and Level III so far.

They include; Uthiru, Kiamaiko, Ushirika and Soweto-Kayole.

Ten out of the 24 new facilities are level 2 hospitals while the rest are level 3 facilities.

NMS Director of Health Dr Ouma Oulga said that they have already equipped Mama Lucy hospital with 43 specialists who handle most of the critical work that can be handled at KNH.

“Here at Mama Lucy we only referral cases to do with Dialysis, radiology and cancer treatment which are critical,” he said.

At the same time, Oluga said that Mama Lucy will be upgraded from a Level IV to a Level V Hospital.

The upgrade will see the number of beds increased to 120 from the current 112. The facility will also have an 18-bed intensive bed care unit (ICU).

“So far we have our referral rate to (KNH) stands at 34 percent but we are intending to have this rate reduce until 1 percent once this facility has been upgraded.” Oluga added.

Last year December, President Uhuru Kenyatta said the Sh2 billion project aimed at increasing Nairobi’s bed capacity in the informal settlement by 280 beds will be ready by the start of February.

The project include rehabilitation of five health facilities across the capital at a cost of Sh300 million as well as construction of 19 new hospitals at an average cost of Sh70 million each.