Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has constituted an emergency taskforce to look into the embattled Kerugota Referal Hospital.
In a statement seen by Daily Active Sunday, Waiguru has tasked the formed taskforce to oversee immediate redeployment of manpower to clean up the health facility.
“The recent upgrade of the facility and increased number of health services offered, Kerugoya Hospital has witnessed an influx of patients stretching resources beyond capacity,” read the statement in part.
Gov Waiguru has ordered purchase of a new incinerator and a supplementary budget to buy more laundry machines to deal with the high number of laundry at the facility.
This follows as doctors and clinical officers from Kirinyaga County join nurses in protesting against the deplorable state of Kerugoya Referral Hospital.
They are demanding that Governor Waiguru immediately reinstates all the 346 casual health workers who were sacked last month.
This is the current status of Kerugoya hospital as at 12pm today. However, you will agree with me that 346 casuals in addition to 300 medical staff, 50 data entry staff and other support staff is over staffing for a 200 bed capacity hospital.#KirinyagaRising pic.twitter.com/iKG41bmgL6
— Anne Waiguru (@AnneWaiguru) May 12, 2019
They complained that their lives and those of the patients are now in danger because of the filthy condition of the hospital and gave the governor 72 hours to meet their demand or face industrial action.
Already, four nurses have contracted hepatitis B and diarrhoea apparently for working in unhygienic conditions.
SITUATION MESSY
“It is true that two nurses are suffering from hepatitis B and two others have running stomachs and are undergoing treatment,” said the Kirinyaga Kenya National Union of Clinical Officers Chairman Paul Mwangi.
The doctors lamented that the situation is messy and that the hospital may be closed at any time.