KENYA,
After the incident came to the front where a neurosurgeon and medical team performed a brain surgery on a wrong person to remove blood clots, the hospital officials have suspended the neurosurgeon, two nurses and an anesthetist who were involved in that matter. Now, protesting this act of the authority of Kenyatta National Hospital, more than hundreds of doctors have hit the road.
They stated that their colleagues should not be punished for the hospital’s failures. They refused to join in their work on Monday and stated that they will resume work after hospital address over the issues like procedural problems, the problem in hospital booking system, staff shortage, shortage of operating space and equipment. However, it is still unclear that when they will keep protesting. For now, hospital works have suffered a lot following the strike.
The Chief Executive of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, OumaOluga stated, “These are quality system issues that should not be leveled at staff.” Due to shortage doctors are overwhelmed and it can see that one doctor is doing around 10 to 19 operations per day.
As per the data given by the World Health Organization, following the understaffing issues, medical students from Africa and Kenya are now migrating to other countries to get better career opportunities. Other factors are early retirement and morbidity.
It may be noted that on 18th and 19th February 2018, two patients suffering from brain injuries were admitted to the general surgery ward of the hospital. While one patient needed surgery to remove a blood clot, another patient needed to be treated for brain swelling. Both the patients have same last name. That created confusion and the surgical staff took the wrong patient into the operation room. They realize their mistake after few hours as they didn’t find the blood clot.
Mark Bor, the Board Chairman of Kenyatta National Hospital informed that the board has opened an internal investigation to investigate the matter in detail so that they can take necessary steps.
