Kenyatta National Hospital has suspended non-urgent medical services and surgical services offered to its patients following the strike of registrars working at the facility.
The registrars boycotted their duties after one of their colleagues was suspended in connection to a brain surgery gone wrong.
As a result of the boycott, other workers at the hospital have admitted that they are unable to cope with the workload due to the high number of patients still streaming in.
They have therefore been obliged to stop operating elective clinics and the elective theatre until matters are back to normal.
[caption caption="Medical Students at a past demonstration"]
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A patient’s safety department was set up at the hospital for staff to voluntarily report medical mistakes to the management.
“This is one area we always thought would assist us in minimizing or eliminating medical mistakes,” mentioned Dr Kimani, a consultant surgeon at KNH.
He also spoke about the arising staffing issues that the hospital suffers from given that registrars are not employed directly by the hospital.
They therefore quickly withdrew their services when it was imminent that they would not receive protection from the hospital in patient safety cases such as the one that recently emerged.
It is known that up to 85 percent of the work at KNH is handled by the registrars, making them a critical component of the hospital’s workforce.
[caption caption="KNH Registrars posing for a group photo"]
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700 medical students declared that they would abscond their duties until the hospital brings the raised systemic issues to a resolution.
