Kenyatta National Hospital’s (KNH) bed capacity in the children wards is full thus forcing up to three patients to share a single bed.
The hospital’s poor infrastructure has also caused caregivers to stand all night as they attend to their patients due to lack of seats.
According to a report by K24 digital, the situation is the same at the paediatric ward whereby mothers are forced to lie on the floor to spend the night with their admitted children.
“We are forced to sleep while standing here as you can see the beds are congested and no chairs to seat. My legs have even started to swell’,” one of the mothers told K24.
A nurse at KNH who sought anonymity said that patients are being forced to share beds because their numbers are high.
“The situation is terrible. We have been having even four patients sharing a bed due to the congestion,” she said.
Another caregiver said that she has been standing since admitting her child a week ago.
“Here, you can’t get a chair unless you steal from your neighbour. Most of us remain standing 24 hours,” she said.
She added that the hospital has been receiving a big number of patients yet there is no space to accommodate them.
KNH CEO Evanson Kamuri however declined to give his comment on the matter.
This comes a few days after it was reported that KNH might be closed for 6 months for renovations.
The aim for the renovations is to upgrade the 1,800-bed facility and then attract Kenyans who for years have gone to more costly private hospitals.
“The best-equipped hospital in this country is KNH. If I was unwell, I would rather go to Kenyatta than any private hospital. Public hospitals must good in the people we deploy and the continuous training in non-clinical issues such as reception and customer care that people will opt to go to public hospitals rather than private ones,” Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said.
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