Watoro Kamau And Wanjiru Macharia
3 February 2008
Nairobi — As the wave of post-election violence hit Nakuru town and its environs, staff at the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital did everything in their power to ensure that the injured received proper treatment.
In the past month the hospital has treated 600 people; another 21 died in the hospital while undergoing treatment.
The victims were mainly from Nakuru town and Njoro, Solai, Ndeffo, Elementaita, Mogotio, and Rongai areas that were hit by the violence that spread like bush fire across the region.
The hospital had its own share of problems as some of its staff were also affected by the clashes.
At least 12 nurses were directly affected by the violence. One lost her husband whn he was killed in the violence, the house of another was burnt down. The others were displaced from their homes.
The hospital was forced to relocate the displaced nurses and their families to an old building within the hospital compound.
Other staff members were unable to report for duty due to insecurity in their residential areas in Nakuru town.
At one point the nurses and doctors, including the hospital's superintendent, Dr George Mugenya, worked for 36 hours without a break to attend to the large number of injured people arriving at the hospital.
Staff working in the maternity, theatre, and surgical wards and in casualty worked continuously for 36 hours because there was no one to relieve them because their relief could not report due to insecurity.
The situation was exacerbated by failure of some staff members to report to duty after violence broke out in the estates.
At the peak of the violence, the hospital, which is normally staffed by more than 150 nurses and doctors, was manned by only 18 medical personnel as the others failed to turn up.
The hospital has about 500 beds and handles close to 700 outpatient cases on daily basis.
The nursing officer in charge, Mr John Njoroge, told the Sunday Nation that the violence occurred in two phases.
During the first phase from December 30, 2007 to January 15, 181 victims of violence were treated at the hospital out of which 109 were admitted; the other 72 were treated and discharged.
Mr Njoroge added that the second phase of violence covered the period between January 16 and 28 during which time 390 victims were treated at the hospital of whom 189 were admitted; the other 201 cases were treated and discharged.
The nursing officer said when violence broke out in Nakuru on January 25, more than 150 victims rushed to the hospital in the morning; 97 were admitted.
He said that although majority of the medical workers had reported to duty on January 25, a large number left later in the day as the security situation in the town grew worse.
"Most of the staff members said that houses were being torched in their residential areas, while other said they wanted to go and take care of their children. This plunged the hospital into a crisis," Mr Njoroge said.
He said only two nurses were at the casualty department; the four other colleagues who were supposed to be on duty did not report to work due to the state of insecurity in their estates.
Mr Njoroge said he was forced to hire a boda boda to take him to work in the morning as matatus were not operating following the violence because some roads had been barricaded by gangs of armed youths.
He said only one nurse was manning the hospital's maternity wing because the rest of the nurses were mobilized to lend a hand in the casualty unit and in the wards where victims were admitted as well as in theatre and in the Intensive Care Unit.
Mr Njoroge said that personnel in the supplies department were also mobilized in order to ensure a steady supply of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical material required by medical staff attending to the victims.
He added that the kitchen staff was asked to prepare tea and meals for the staff who were served refreshment and food as they attended to the victims.
Mr Njoroge said the hospital administration arranged to have the children of staff members on duty taken care of by friends and relatives.
He said Ward Seven, where most of the injured were admitted, was manned by three nurses who remained in the hospital for 36 hours when their colleagues failed to turn up.
"On January 25, we were in total crisis, and by midday we had to ask for assistance from Medicins sans Frontieres Spain (MSF) who gave us seven nurses to assist us between 6 pm and 9 pm," he said.
All four beds in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were occupied by the victims of the violence.
He added that the nurses from MSF reported to the hospital the following morning and provided assistance from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Mr Njoroge said the hospital administration also called in Red Cross Society of Kenya personnel who were dispatched to various estates affected by the violence to assist the casualties on the scene.
"The MSF nurses assisted us in dressing the injured and preparing the wards, while our team of senior doctors and consultants were backed by junior doctors at the hospital," he said.
At least seven consultants, including surgeons led by Dr George Mugenya, remained at the hospital for 36 hours.
He said the shortage of staff at the hospital was made worse by the fact that the Medical Training College and Egerton University's medical school had been closed.
Mr Njoroge said the hospital received massive support from the senior staff at Ministry of Health headquarters in Nairobi who dispatched a huge consignment of pharmaceutical supplies and other material to ensure the injured received the necessary treatment.
He said the hospital had waived all the medical charges that are normally paid under the cost-sharing scheme as the injured could not immediately raise the money because they had been displaced by the violence.
All leave was cancelled to ensure adequate staffing.
Mr Njoroge said that prior to the outbreak of the violence, the hospital had prepared itself to handle cases of post-election violence, but no one had anticipated such a large number.
"Since 1992, the hospital had been handling numerous cases of post-election violence in Nakuru town and surrounding areas. We had a similar situation in 1997 and in 2002 and that is why we decided to take precaution," he said.
He added: "We had even formed a rapid response team which was supposed to handle emergency cases in case of violence. Their cell phone numbers and other contacts had been taken, but the situation was so bad that our staff turned out to be among the victims. The state of insecurity in town also impacted negatively on the team since workers were affected in their estates."
By Friday, 57 victims of the violence were still hospitalised.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
