Why patients are fleeing this hospital

Empty beds mark the acute crisis at Baringo county Referral Hospital -Kabarnet as patients flee the facility owing to slow services and shortage of staff.

An impromptu inspection visit by County Health officers’ accompanied with  journalists on Tuesday showed few activities as patients are seeking help elsewhere.

“There were no doctors or nurses to attend to us over the weekend so I watched two of my fellow patients succumb to their illness on Sunday,” a patient told the media at his hospital bed.

He decried the filthy state of the wards saying nobody cares to clear the mess after a patient dies or is transferred.

A woman at the maternity wing spoke of too much congestion. She said expectant mothers were being harassed by the few nurses on duty.

“Despite teething challenges, we are committed and trying our best to make sure the facility is up and running,” County Health Executive Mary Panga said.

Panga refuted the claims on social media that the facility is about collapse saying the information only helps to scare and kill the moral of the hardworking staff.

Present also were the health Chief Officer Dr Gideon Toromo and his Preventive and Promotive Health Care counterpart Dr Winnie Bore.

But shockingly there were empty beds and countable number of patients down in the wards while a few nurses were seen running up and down.

“Shortage of doctors, lack of an operational ICU, Oxygen plant and a blood bank are the major reasons why we transfer our patients” Toromo said.-The Star.