Update Friday 12:50:
The Laikipia County government on Friday, June 4, took action after a 58-year-old died in the waiting bay of the Nanyuki Hospital as medics celebrated a birthday.
The County government has taken responsibility and fired two staff members.
The action came after a demonstration by members of the public on Thursday, June 3.
A 58-year-old woman died at the waiting bay of the Nanyuki Teaching and Referral Hospital while awaiting her laboratory results on Monday, May 31.
Halima Hassan had been rushed to the hospital by her family members when she got sick at her home.
On seeing a doctor at the hospital's emergency unit, she was instructed to get some laboratory tests to which she was taken by her son Ramadhan Hassan Omar.
“On several occasions, I approached a male nurse for help who felt I was nagging and rudely told me off,” Omar told K24 Digital.
He added that he was not the only one on the queue as there were other patients who were awaiting their results.
Omar learnt later that the lab technicians and nurses were attending a colleagues birthday party in one of the rooms.
Laikipia County Health CEC Rose Maitai confirmed the incident and indicated that disciplinary action would be taken against those responsible.
Cases of neglect of patients in Kenyan hospitals have caught media headlines from time to time in the country.
In 2020, a patient died at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) parking lot, after he went untreated for hours.
Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) Secretary-General Seth Panyako indicated that workers had not received their salaries.
A day later, a devastated woman was captured on camera pleading with health workers at KNH to attend to a critically ill patient.
She feared that the patient she had brought in for treatment would die if not urgently attended to. However, the health workers could not treat the patients and turned her away.
