Mombasa Chief Health Officer Dr Khadija Shikelly addressing journalists. She has appealed for a quick solution to the nurses’ strike. [Photo: Maxwell Ngala/ hivisasa.com]
Mombasa Health chief officer Dr Khadija Shikelly has appealed for quick intervention to end the ongoing nurses’ strike.This comes after six patients died at the Coast general hospital.Dr Shikelly said activities at the hospital were paralyzed on Monday after the nurses downed their tools.“We lost one patient who was referred to us from Tana delta in Tana River County and two others from private facilities in Mombasa on Monday afternoon and we lost other three patients on Tuesday morning,” said Shikelly.She appealed to the national government to intervene, saying the hospital is the largest health facility in the Coast region.“We provide health services to all the six Coast counties so if we are faced by such drastic industrial action, then we are unwillingly punishing the innocent people seeking medical services at our facility,” she added.Shikelly said they have deployed 70 nurses working on contract to all the public health hospitals in Mombasa to help control the situation.She, however, noted that the number is very small as the nurses are not enough to attend to the huge number of patients flocking the hospitals to seek treatment.A nurse who sought anonymity said they were forced to turn away patients who sought treatment at the facility.“I am not employed by the county to do charity work. I need money to survive considering the rising cost of living,” she said.