At least seven patients died on Monday at the start of a nationwide strike by medical workers, while thousands of others were discharged prematurely from deserted hospitals.
The countrywide doctors and nurses’ strike that began on Monday saw all medical services in Kitui and Mwingi level-four hospitals grind to a halt.
A spot check at the Kitui County Referral Hospital revealed that only pharmacists and clinical officers reported to duty, but they were generally idle.
There was pain and anguish at the two main hospitals as patients were turned away. Not even dispensaries and health centres in the remote parts of the county were staffed.
About 50 per cent of its staff were not around. Many inpatients were seen leaving the hospital on foot or using boda bodas.
Two new mothers — Jacinta Mutheu and Janet Mwendwa — left the hospital carrying their barely-one-day-old babies. They gave birth on Sunday. The mothers said their children had not been inoculated.
In-patients at the two main hospitals were the hardest hit, as they got neither treatment nor drugs. The lucky ones were cared for by relatives, some of whom were disillusioned and not sure where to take their sick kin.
In the wards, some relatives of patients appeared resigned. They could not afford could not afford to take their relatives to private hospitals as advised by striking medics.
Joseph Ndaa who was nursing his father, a stroke patient, said, “The situation here is bad because we have been asked to pay current bills and evacuate our relatives. My father is seriously sick and was to go for a head CT scan in Nairobi before the strike started,” he said.