NURSES STRIKE-KIRINYAGA.
JANE MUGAMBI 01/03/12
One person is feared dead at Kerugoya district hospital after Medical workers (nurses) down their tools demanding better working conditions.
The patient is reported to have succumbed to illness this morning after nurses neglected him and joined the strike which has paralyzed all operations in the only referral hospital in Kirinyaga County.
Unconfirmed report says that the patient died as other subordinate workers looked at him as they could not offer any assistance for they do not have skills or did not know how to handle him.
Following the strike, hundreds of patients were stranded at the hospital without anyone to prescribe drugs for them.
Led by the Kenya health professionals’ society secretary Central region Lawrence Kinyua the workers downed their tools demanding their allowances which the government has been giving empty promises.
He said that the government has failed in its responsibilities of tackling issues that are affecting the medical fraternity.
“The government has shown that it is not able to handle the issues of the medical fraternity, since the time it said it was ready for dialogue, the two ministers were supposed to have done so n not the eleventh hour” he added.
The striking workers who included nurses, clinical officers’ laboratory technicians and drivers refused to work and rose up in protest accusing the government of failing to keep its promises
Among the demands they want government to urgently deal with is risk, house and extraneous allowances which they pointed are long overdue.
They vowed to continue with the strike until the government meets their demands.
The protesters said the government had in December last year promised to pay the allowances but failed to fulfill its pledges.
The union boss noted that the only language the government understands is strike as the minister for medical services has taken them for a ride.
When the press visited the hospital the situation was appalling and all the departments were not in operation and patients, some who were too weak could be seen sleeping in beds groaning in pain.
A woman who trekked for ten kilometers to the hospital to give birth was turned away and had to be assisted to get into a room by other women who had rose for their normal clinics..
The situation was worse at wards where patients were left without anyone to give them drugs, do dressing or even prepare them to go to theatre.
Those who were waiting to be taken to theatre for operation complained that there were no nurses to prepare them for surgery.
A retired senior prison warder Wilson Mwai said he was supposed to be wheeled to theatre in the morning but it never happened.
Other patients said they were shocked when nurses came to the wards and told them to go home although they were unwell and disappeared wondering where they were supposed to go to seek treatment without a discharge sheet which is required to show wherever they would go if they were able to get out.
ENDS……………..