Patients at the Kilifi County Referral hospital have complained of congestion, poor services and lack of medicine and critical medical implements that has forced them stay longer in the wards.
Mr. Tawa Sarai, who got an accident and broke his leg, was brought at the facility in June this year but his leg has not been fixed to date.
He said that the hospital has only one orthopedic surgeon who checks on patients once very week and sometimes he fails to turn up.
“I got an accident in July 26 and I was brought here, I was given my dose for one week, after that I was told that the dose is over. I was to be treated last Monday but it did not happen because we are told the surgeon is only one,” he said
Apart from that, he added that patients are forced to buy their own medicine and other implements including pain killers.
“We buy our own medicine and the food is bad. My bill is now Sh. 26,000 yet I have not even been treated and we are also sharing beds. We are kept for a long period before being offered services,” he said.
Mr. Richard Charo, another patient, said that he was asked by the doctor to buy a bone plate to fix his leg because the hospital does not have stock.
“I was told to buy the bone plate which I bought and they told me it is unnecessary since they will fix their own. They always tell me to wait for Monday which never arrives. My bill is now Sh. 40, 000,” he said.
The old wing of the Kilifi County Referral hospital is a contrast to the newly unveiled Sh. 700 million Kilifi Medical Complex that sits in the same compound.
The Medical Complex was built during the regime of former Governor Amason Kingi and is currently in use.
“We have one of the best hospitals in the region if not in the country, dubbed the Kilifi County Medical Complex with state of the art theatres and equipment. A patient in Kilifi will not need to travel outside for specialized treatment which the hospital currently offers,” said Mr. Kingi when contacted.
He added that Kilifi County provides critical services such as Intensive Care Unit (ICU), High Dependency Unit (HDU), state of the art theatres and dialysis which were missing.
“I can proudly say I am leaving a county that can take care of itself in terms of healthcare,” he said.
He also challenged the Government of Governor Gideon Mung’aro to invest in equipping the medical complex and other facilities in the county instead of going for new buildings.
Mr. Mung’aro who visited the two facilities was bombarded by patients with huge hospital bills and he promised to address the matter.
“We have seen the old wing which has a lot of challenges such as lack of medicine and implements and it is too old for use and we have also toured the new wing which is the Kilifi Medical Complex which also has very few machines and more needs to be done,” he said.
The governor is banking on the swearing in of the Kilifi Members of County Assembly who will then pass a supplementary budget to cater for the shortcomings in the health department.
“I’m waiting for MCAs to be sworn in so that we can prepare a supplementary budget to cater for the things that are critical for this hospital and the others in the county,” he said.
On the issues of sharing of beds he said, “We shall consult the hospital management to see if patients at the old wing can be moved to the new wing since there are empty beds there. We are also going to purchase machines and patients should not be retained in the hospital because of bills. We want to ensure that residents do not travel outside the county for medical services.”
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