Day 70 Kenyan Nurses Strike
It is ward round time at the new born unit of The Kenyatta National Hospital. The senior consultant walks in and behind her eager students follow in a V-like formation. On day 70 of the nurses strike KNH Newborn has approximately 200 neonates. The ward was designed for a capacity of 35. The other public hospitals are on lock down due to a devastating nurses strike. There are 3 to 4 children per incubator. The local joke is that these neonates are happily sharing cots without asking which tribe the other is from – a lesson in national unity.
These children have been born in a crowded labor ward where the doctors occassionally have to jump over patients on the floor. And indeed some were unfortunate to be born on the floor and even in the toilet. Mothers are coming from all over with babies literally stuck in the perineum having been in labor for very long and having moved from hospital to hospital looking for help. Children with face presentation have had their eyes literally popped from multiple examinations to the stuck baby’s face. Mothers have undergone cesarean sections and gone home with no babies. Why?
The newborn unit, like the maternity, has been described as a market. The nursing staff is overstretched. Certification of death of unfortunate newborns has become a norm. The doctors are losing their hearts. Children who are lucky to survive traumatic births may suffer lifelong brain injury. This is called birth asphyxia in medical lingo. The long term consequences of birth asphyxia will take a toll on not only the baby but the whole family. The cost of caring for a birth-asphyxiated child is tremendous. Its toll on the social life of the families is also huge. Husbands have been known to abandon mothers with these children we call special. I once met a mother who was still carrying her 7 year old around like a neonate because of birth asphyxia. She had done so dilligently since the birth of that baby. Her partner took off a long time ago blaming her for the child’s problems.
This begs the question – ‘what is the value of a Kenyan life? Whose responsibility is it to solve the public nurses strike that has brought the public healthcare to a standstill.
Health begins with you! Tonight I implore all of us as Kenyans to stand in front of the mirror and ask themselves what role each of them will play from now henceforth to ensure that the right to health is upheld.
I have a few suggestions.
- Always remember that it it not ‘the other person’ who will require public healthcare. It is you. It is your brother. It is your sister, mother & father. This thought will help you focus.
- Advocate that health workers be managed under a health service commission. You can do this by paying a courtesy call to the latest enployees in town- your MCA, MP, Woman Rep, Senator, Governor, DP & President. Remind them that public health facilities are closed because of poor management of Human Resources for Health. Remind them that the Health Service Commission is the Solution. This is the best time to see them when politicians are in a celebratory mood as the country mourns.
- Remind the voters that an expensive public health contributes to their high cost of living both directly (catastrophic iillness draining whole family oncomes) and indirectly through medical contributions, funeral contributions, etc.
- Ask the Governors to give Caesar what belongs to Caesar i.e. return the hospital funds to hospitals. Hospital Management Teams (HMTs) know how to manage hospitals better than the governors.
- Ask the government to employ all cadres in health workers to improve the caretaker:patient ratio for better quality of care.
- Pray that the Almighty will guide our leaders and populace to value the life of Kenyans
Let us not wait for this “birth asphyxiated” generation to grow any further. Surely we are not children of a lesser god.
Wakati ni sasa na kama si sasa ni sasa hivi. Let us all do something.
Happy new government!