The emergency wing at Kenya’s biggest referral health facility, Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), has emerged as the biggest casualty of the ongoing purge on striking doctors, having lost three quarters of its medics in the initial sackings made on Wednesday.
The KNH board sacked 12 doctors for absconding duty and participating in an illegal strike — leaving the busy Casualty Department with less than half the medics it needs to function optimally.
The move deepens the health sector crisis that has left millions of ordinary Kenyans without access to affordable treatment in the past three months.
But KNH chief executive Lily Koros sought to play down the crisis, saying it doesn’t warrant panic among members of the public as the hospital had made special arrangements to handle the situation.
“Emergency cases are well taken care of throughout,” said Ms Koros, adding that most of those sacked were specifically working in the emergency unit.
Ms Koros was yet to confirm the exact number of those sacked from Casualty Department by the time we went to press.
At any given time the Accident and Emergency Unit keeps 30 doctors, usually referred to as medical officers, on call — working on a rotational basis.
Ms Koros said that whenever there is a shortage of staff or influx of patients, the referral facility engages more doctors on locum basis.
KNH’s casualty unit handles up to 700 patients a day. A reduction in number of doctors at the emergency wing by more than half means that only about 20 doctors would be handling the 700 critical patients in a span of 24 hours.
The 20 doctors are expected to work for six hours before changing shifts, translating to four shifts a day.This means that with the majority of accident cases happening during the day only four doctors would be available for every shift of six hours attending to about 500 emergency patients — and 200 at night — bringing the doctor/patient ratio to 1:63.
Considering the nature of emergency situations, the current number of doctors at the facility’s emergency department is wanting.
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday accused the doctors of concentrating on private practice and only serving public hospitals for about two hours a day.
“It is unfair that the doctors still operate private practice yet expect us to pay them more. This is blackmail and we are not going to entertain it,” Mr Kenyatta said at the opening of the devolution conference.
Mr Kenyatta said the government was committed to a fair resolution of the impasse even as he impressed upon the striking doctors to remember their call to duty.
“There has to be fairness from the doctors too. They need to be guided by patience and practicality,” he said before he announced the withdrawal of the enhanced package his government had offered the medics.
The enhanced offer came with a 50 per cent pay rise among other benefits.
Kenyatta National Hospital, Accident and Emergency unit Photo www.kenyan-post.com