Dr. Loice Ombajo, Head of Infectious Diseases Unit at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) on Monday night, July 6, revealed that all Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds were occupied.
Speaking to Citizen TV's Trevor Ombija, Dr. Ombajo pointed out that the Level 5 hospital ran the risk of being overwhelmed following the recent spike in COVID-19 cases.
"ICU beds in KNH are full as of now. However, it is important to note that COVID-19 has not replaced other diseases. We still need ICU bed capacity for patients with other diseases," she stated.
Her statements echo recent reports from various hospitals where doctors confessed to operating beyond capacity.
Dr. Peter Michoma, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist told the Daily Nation that he could not treat some of his patients, especially those diagnosed with COVID-19 because KNH has run out of bed space to admit any more patients.
He further revealed that the following wards were full, COVID-19 maternity ward, COVID-19 ward for the severely ill (IDU), COVID-19 medical ward for the less symptomatic patients, and that single ward rooms with oxygen points were filled with suspected/ confirmed COVID-19 cases.
The situation is the same at Mbagathi Hospital where the infectious diseases units are full to capacity, with a health worker at the facility pointing out that they were operating beyond their capacity.
Reports also revealed that The Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral, and Research Hospital, which has a 24-bed capacity, could only admit eight patients at once due to the patient-nurse ratio.
On June 10, the Ministry of Health launched the home-based and isolation care guidelines for Covid-19 patients in a bid to open up spaces at hospitals across the country.
Health CAS Rashid Aman argued that there was no need for asymptomatic patients to take up resources in hospitals as 78% of the current patients in the facilities were either mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic.
The current state of hospitals operating at full capacity had led to reports of patients being turned away at various health centres, but Acting Director of Public Health, Francis Kuria denied knowledge of the same, noting that positive Covid-19 patients were being enrolled in the home-based care program.
In her latest interview, Dr. Ombajo warned that President Uhuru Kenyatta's decision to end the cessation of movement within Nairobi, Mombasa and Mandera would lead to a spike of COVID-19 positive cases in the counties.
The Head of Infectious Diseases Unit at KNH went on to urge Kenyans to adhere to safety measures as she had data showing that asymptomatic people could still spread the coronavirus
With potentially asymptomatic individuals now able to move across counties, she reiterated the need to ensure that county hospitals had achieved the required capacity of 300 beds, in case the projected spike in cases upcountry was realised.
Watch Dr Ombajo's latest interview below:
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