The Nairobi County Government has today shed light over the incident of mother who walked 5km carrying body of her child. This comes after the story was covered by the media leading the county executive committee members to investigate into the matter.
The mother is said to have walked from Mbagathi Hospital to Kenyatta National Hospital Police Post and on to City Mortuary.
In the statement, the Committee gave their condolence to the mother, Immaculate Auma, for the loss of her baby. They also revealed the details that emerged from their investigation.
The committee clarified that Immaculate and her baby were never admitted at Mbagathi, and her baby did not die at the hospital as some of the publications recorded. They also maintained that the hospital staff did nothing wrong.
“Immaculate Auma arrived at Mbagathi Hospital on Wednesday at 9:45am with the body of her six-month old infant. The baby was confirmed dead on arrival by the pediatric clinical officer. In cases where a person is dead on arrival, the Hospital does not admit, and instead requires the kin to file a notification with the police.
A nurse at the hospital offered to assist Immaculate to organize for transportation to the police station and onward the mortuary. However, while the hospital was organizing for a vehicle, the mother was discovered to have left with the body of her child.” reads statement in part
The Committee also revealed that from the account in a report submitted by the nurse and the clinical officer who handled the baby; the hospital management identified existing gaps in service delivery and came up with recommendations.
The County Government is convinced that by putting those measures, service delivery will be improved.
Gaps in service delivery
Inefficient customer care desk, Security at the gate was not vigilant , The flow of information has not been efficient, The death notification form is not comprehensive enough, Lack of a utility vehicle at the facility
As a result, the following measures have been deliberated and agreed upon to help bridge the gap and improve the care of patients:
1) Bodies brought in dead will be kept at the hospital mortuary after relatives report to the police.
2) Issuance of burial permits will be coordinated by the City Mortuary.
3) If there is need for a postmortem, the hospital will advise.
4) We will establish an effective customer care desk.
5) We will educate our security officers on the need for good customer care.
6) We will modify the notification form to have triplicate copies i.e. one for the relative, one for the mortuary and one for the OPD file.
7) We will call for an urgent Hospital Management meeting to sensitize the staff to improve on service delivery.
8 We will urgently issue a memo to inform the staff of OPD about to new measures to take to avoid bodies being ferried by relatives.
9) We will liaise with KNH police to be coming to the hospital for cases of bodies brought in.