Ailing Mbagathi Hospital out of drugs

Ailing Mbagathi Hospital out of drugs

It has now emerged that Mbagathi hospital in Nairobi has not had essential medicine for days.

Many of those going to the pharmacy with prescriptions have been refereed outside the facility to buy the drugs with the county government not paying the suppliers being cited as the main reason.

It is not a new occurrence in public hospitals at times, but most of the drugs, the patients we met or those buying them for patients are basic drugs such as painkillers and antibiotics.

We posed questions to the hospital administration, seeking to know how long this has persisted, why? And who is responsible? But we were directed back to the county government.

Initial reports state that the county government has not paid suppliers, which is the most possible cause for this predicament.

Nairobi Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko however maintained that Nairobi is honouring its agreement in paying its outstanding debt to KEMSA.

In August 2018, the governor had suspended the Health CEC and County Health Director, citing the poor state of health facilities and lack of medicine.

In September 2018, the then Health CEC appointed after Vesca Kangogo was also suspended.

Nairobi now has an acting Health CEC, Charles Kerich and at the time of publishing this report, only Sonko had responded.

In August 2018, Nairobi’s outstanding payment to KEMSA stood at Ksh.234 million.

After deliberations with the county government on an amicable repayment plan, KEMSA resumed business to supply drugs and ensure that there were uninterrupted health services.

The agreement with Nairobi County is to service the outstanding debt of Ksh.234 million every month to a tune of Ksh.30 million.

The new order costing Ksh.146 million will on the other hand be paid on quarterly basis till completion.

But this is just KEMSA without factoring in other suppliers who may have not been paid.

”We have been paying 30 million every month.” Said Sonko.

The unfortunate scenario however is, if this continues to persist, the patients will continue to suffer.

Tags:

KEMSA Mbagathi Hospital Nairobi Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko

Want to send us a story? Submit on Wananchi Reporting on the Citizen Digital App or Send an email to wananchi@royalmedia.co.ke or Send an SMS to 25170 or WhatsApp on 0743570000

Leave a Comment

Comments

No comments yet.

latest stories