Faulty Life-Saving Machines at Kenyatta National Hospital Leave Patients in Agony

A break down of three key life-saving machines at the Kenya’s biggest referral hospital, Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) has reportedly paralyzed key operations at the facility.

Daily Nation reports that KNH has been without the three machines, which include; Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan, a laparoscopy tower machine and a skin grafting machine for the last one year, after they became faulty.

Those who have been hit hard by absence of the aforementioned equipment are cancer patients, who camp at the hospital with hope of getting cancer treatment services.

Paul, who was diagnosed with stage four bladder cancer in 2014 and has been attending weekly check ups at KNH is among those who have been affected by the absence of the machines.

He says that, together with four other patients who suffer from the same ailment have not gotten the services of an MRI machine for over an year now.

“The last time I went to KNH, the attending doctor told me he had borrowed the camera from another hospital to conduct the surgery. When I went for the service again in subsequent months, the doctor said he could not borrow the camera for the second time hence referring me,” said Paul.

He now spends up to Sh340,000 at a private hospital where he was referred to, instead of about Sh30, 000 he spent at Kenyatta National Hospital.

“In the first operation, NHIF paid about 65 per cent of the bill. In the second surgery, which was three months apart, it only footed about 40 per cent, leaving the larger chunk of costs to me.”

“I have been suffering because the tumours lead to bleeding which eventually cause anaemia. This only means that if I do not have the tumours removed, I will need blood transfusion,” he plaintively recounted.