FEAR OF DEATH AT MACHAKOS LEVEL FIVE HOSPITAL

Machakos Level Five Hospital in Machakos town is on its deathbed due to poor management.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that there is fear that infants might have died due to lack of vital facilities.
Weekly Citizen has since established that breakage of the main power generator has raised the eyebrows of all stakeholders.
When there is no power supplied by the Kenya Power, then patients and nurses are forced to use torches since the generator has failed.
Nurses who sought anonymity decried the acute shortage of medicine and other essential supplies in the hospital.
According to residents, the health and emergency services department is lacking officers with the right managerial skills required in providing quality health services to the public
“The county government should check the acute shortage of qualified health workers, shortage of drugs and medical supplies in public health institutions and unaffordable health services,” one of the residents said.
Residents said for years, the media and various interest groups have exposed the rot in the health sector.
Investigations show that lack of sufficient human resources and deficient budgetary allocation of funds to government hospitals lead to inadequate facilities, drugs and equipment.
Recently, residents of Matuu led by the business community gave county government a two- week ultimatum to reopen the Matuu Level Four Hospital.
The hospital was closed after the contractor who had been contracted by the county government to do a facelift of the ward units pulled out before the work was completed.
The Matuu chairman Chamber of Commerce and Industry Judas Ndawa said that the closure of the hospital has completely paralysed delivery of health services in the region.
Ndawa said that the nurses and clinical officers in the hospital have been left with no option than to always refer the serious cases to other hospitals like Thika Level 5.
He said that the hospital only operates on an outpatient policy despite being the only major hospital that serves the whole of Yatta.
Ndawa said that the business community in Matuu will lead the residents into a peaceful demonstration if no action will have been taken by the end of the two weeks.
“We are saying that if the county government does not act, we will march to the streets to demand for our rights,” he said.
In his recent tour to the hospital, the Machakos governor Alfred Mutua admitted in a post in his Facebook wall that the hospital was in a sorry state.
In his post, Mutua blamed the state of the hospital on the poor information he has been getting from his government officials.
“Contrary to reports that I have always been given by my government officials, I was shocked to find that the hospital lacks water and medicines. There is painful inefficient service delivery,” Mutua posted in his wall.
Mutua wrote that following the situation, he will soon be making radical changes in the department of health and emergency services so as to ensure service delivery to the people.