Mbagathi Hospital is in Nairobi County. It takes care of thousands of patients on a daily basis. When we visited it last week, all the benches were full, hopeful patients waiting to be attended to.
We had gone there to visit our mum who was admitted to the facility. She had been there for 7 days. We had been referred to the facility because it is deemed affordable.
She was admitted. And that is when the reality dawned on us. The hospital, despite being that popular and receiving so many patients, is short of so many essential things that patients need.
The first thing we noticed is that the hospital has not enough medicine. The only available medicine is painkillers. Any other medicine has to be bought outside the hospital. Sometimes nurses will direct you where to buy.
Patients are admitted but it is like spending a night at a hotel where only a bed is provided with some few amenities. The nurses and doctors at these facilities are somehow trying but they seem not to have enough support in terms of medicine and other equipment.
If someone wants to donate blood for a patient, imagine Mbagathi Hospital doesn’t have that capacity. It has to be done at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) then maybe picked later.
Tests such as Endoscopy and simple scans cannot be done at the facility. Nurses will have to insist on where you should do such tests where you are charged exorbitant amounts of money.
The finance department at Mbagathi is another menace. If one is not keen on reading their hospital bills, some charges will be added without one’s knowledge. One patient who needed a simple chest check was charged 5,000 shillings instead of 500 shillings. But this happens to those admitted where the bill accumulates and has to be paid after some time.
Something needs to be done.
Concerned citizen and customer.
