Medical master’s degree students attached to the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) have downed their tools after their colleague was suspended over the infamous brain surgery mix up.
The KNH registrars said on Monday that they will keep off the health facility until the neurosurgeon who conducted a brain surgery on a wrong patient is reinstated.
They also demanded that KNH resolves key systematic issues, saying they resulted in the mixup.
Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) chairman Samuel Oroko said they will demand "a total overhaul of the KNH system."
There was public outrage last week after the referral hospital admitted that its neurosurgeon conducted a brain surgery on the wrong patient.
Three other staff - a ward nurse, theatre receiving nurse and an anesthetist - have also been suspended over the incident.
The Nairobi based hospital said doctors did not realise the mistake until hours into the surgery when they discovered there was no blood clot in the brain of the man sprawled on the operating table.
One patient needed head surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain while the other only required nursing and medication to heal a trauma swelling in his head, medically known as closed head injury.
There was a mix-up of identification tags which saw the wrong man wheeled into theatre and his skull opened.
KNH CEO Lily Koros has since been sent on compulsory leave by Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki over the saga.