Empty hospital beds. The facility has hired the services of private health workers following the prolonged nurses’ strike. [Photo/ the-star.co.ke]
Garissa County Referral Hospital has now resorted to hiring the services of private health workers following the prolonged nurses’ strike that has now entered its fourth month.The chief executive officer at the hospital, Sarah Dagane, on Tuesday said services at the facility had been paralysed following the strike, a move she said had pushed them to seek alternative means of resolving the crisis.Dagane said since the strike began, the facility, which is the largest referral health facility in the Northern Eastern region, has not been admitting patients as there was no one to attend to them.According to Dagane, the new staff will focus on attending to emergency cases.She, however, appealed to the national government, the Nurses Union and the county government to urgently resolve the issue in order to alleviate the pain patients are going through."It is our prayer that the government, the nurses as well as clinical officers find a solution to the strike that has affected public hospitals,” she said.