Outrage After Two Patients Die at Nanyuki Referral Hospital as Staff Members Attend Birthday Party

Outrage After Two Patients Die at Nanyuki Referral Hospital as Staff Members Attend Birthday Party

Two senior medical laboratory officers attached to Nanyuki Teaching and Referral Hospital have been suspended for negligence following the death of two patients.

Phydelis Wachie, a Senior Medical Laboratory Officer, and Clement Wambugu, a Lab Technologist, were interdicted to pave the way for investigations into the incident.

The two are alleged to have absconded duty to attend a colleague’s birthday party at the facility, leading to the death of Halima Hassan, 58, and 24-year-old Jane Njoki, who were waiting for treatment. 

Addressing the press on Friday, Laikipia County Health CEC Rose Maitai said they have also written to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to probe any criminal liability on the two workers.

“We have carried out our investigations and it has indicated that there was a bit of laxity and rudeness to patients by two of our staff and we have interdicted them,” Maitai said.

“There was a birthday party that happened in the department, and from where we sit there’s really nothing wrong with having a birthday party, the only mistake that the staff did is to halt service delivery in the name of celebration.”

Halima was taken to the hospital with high blood pressure. Her daughter Sophia said nurses asked them to wait for five minutes to be attended to but her mother died after waiting for more than 30 minutes.

On the other hand, Njoki died from excessive bleeding after giving birth. Her husband Ibrahim Mohammed said they had gone to donate blood to save her life but his wife was not attended to until her death. 

Mohammed said they later learned operations at the facility were running slowly due to a surprise birthday party at the laboratory.

Comments

Mary (not verified)     Fri, 06/04/2021 @ 01:43pm

Mmmmhhhh lab workers and where are the doctors and nurses😳😳😳😳😳this sounds plain terrible. Is it a hospital where lab workers diagnose and stabilize patients🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️😔😔😔😔😳😳😳

MjuAji (not verified)     Fri, 06/04/2021 @ 03:20pm

From rotten Kenyan police force, chiefs and other administrators, to the pathetic greedy and arrogant doctors, nurses, record clerks, cleaners, mortuary attendants, oooh Dear Lord, Jamhuri went to the dogs 50 years ago.
Kenyan sick doctors are notorious for abdicating duty and negligence, on many aspects. These criminals only show up in government hospitals for two, then sneak out to serve out-patients in make-shifts clinics spread across major towns, by charging Ksh5000 for less than 2 minutes consultation fee. From there they visit various private hospitals where they spend less than 2 minutes on every patient, then pass by the nurse stations where they are paid Ksh 3500, which is billed to the patients. The same doctors make referrals to their cancer/kidney/liver/heart/ and other terminally-ill patients to Delhi or Mumbai Indian Hospitals e.g.
1. BLK Super Speciality hospital.
2. Fortis Escorts Heart Institute.
3. Indraprastha Apollo Hospital.
4. Max Super-speciality Hospital.
5. Fortis Memorial Research Institute etc.
For every patient referred to any of these hospitals, some rogue Kenyan doctors collect 15 percent of the total medical bill incurred to the patient. And to avoid scrutiny or being charged for money-laundering, these doctors prefer travelling to Indian on a sabbatical leave to go and collect their loot.
Public hospitals, where more than 85 percentage of poor, desperate and gullible Kenyans go to seek for medical help, has been a death chamber since time immemorial. Visit any of this government hospitals, and the snaking slow-moving lines will tell you horrible tales.
I once took a dying accident victim six months ago, to a Nakuru provincial general hospital who had a serious accident that needed immediate medical attention. The record or file clerks stood took a whopping 2 hours to prepare a file for admission to the ward. By the time we got to the ward, the guy had lost to much blood he died minutes later. The nurses just covered him up and kept the body in the same ward while the rest of the patients, who have being watching the guy being resuscitated, all wore a scary faces. I had to plea with the nurses to try and remove the body from the vicinity of other patients, as they were awaiting The nurses even wanted bribes
So these two incident are not strange, its just that their families had the guts to go to the press. Otherwise, wangepotelea hivyo tu.

Wagema (not verified)     Fri, 06/04/2021 @ 05:30pm

I agree with previous views completely. Many years ago we took our mother, who was suffering from cancer, to Kenyatta National hospistal. She did not get admitted until 6 hours later when she got a bed which she shared with another patient. I had to keep her company for 2 days as I feared she might fall from the narrow bed.
The nurses were especially rude and nasty. She passed on 2 weeks later. I was happy for her.
It is pure hell to be really sick in Kenya.
I thank God that I have been fairly healthy. I dread the time when I will sick and have need admission. I just hope when my time to pass on I will not need hospitalization.
I saw what our health system has to offer and I do not any part of it.

So-woke (not verified)     Sat, 06/05/2021 @ 01:10pm

In reply to by Wagema (not verified)

Sorry to hear that. Sharing beds and lacking staff and facilities is an indictment on govt. Uhuraila singing and spending billions on Cubans, reggae and other non urgent things is criminal. Human life has been cheapened

sam ingram (not verified)     Sat, 06/05/2021 @ 07:26am

One of our biggest problem is lack of respect for the jobs we have and lack of integrity. With integrity a person does what they are supposed to do whether somebody is watching or not.

Imara (not verified)     Mon, 06/07/2021 @ 01:50pm

Just ask yourself: How many employees in these institutions have fake degree? Some years back, there was a gentleman who had risen to the position of " assistant superintendent of police" and yet he had not attended any police training institute.

SOLUTION:

No government employee should be allowed to seek any medical treatment out of Kenya. This decision will solve the current negative state of affairs that is found in Kenyan hospitals.

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