Nairobi’s biggest hospital is in a major crisis arising from shortage of drugs, even forcing admitted patients to buy own medication from private pharmaceutical shops.
Many of those going to the pharmacy with prescriptions have been refereed outside the facility to buy the drugs with the county government not paying the suppliers being cited as the main reason.
Not even basic medications such as painkillers, which ordinarily retail for less than Sh10 a pair, were available to the hundreds of inpatients at the Mbagathi Hospital operated by the Nairobi County.
All the medics could for patients seeking laboratory services was to direct them to nearby private facilities or the Kenyatta National Hospital the country’s biggest public referral facility.Collapse of service delivery at Mbagathi Hospital flies in the face of recent attempts to restock county hospitals by Governor Mike Sonko following a dispute with the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority over piling debts.
It would hence appear that Kemsa has ignored the directive issued by the Ministry of Health to continue supplies despite the outstanding dues, as negotiations about the settlement of the debts get underway.Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki directed the medical supplies agency that the debts owed by Nairobi County estimated at Sh235 million should not stand in the way of servicing patients.
Medics who spoke to the Standard in confidence painted a hopeless picture of suffering patients, many too poor to buy own medication from the private drug stores.
In August 2018, the governor had suspended the Health CEC and County Health Director, citing the poor state of health facilities and lack of medicine.
In September 2018, the then Health CEC appointed after Vesca Kangogo was also suspended.Nairobi now has an acting Health CEC, Charles Kerich and at the time of publishing this report, only Sonko had responded.
In August 2018, Nairobi’s outstanding payment to KEMSA stood at Ksh.234 million.
