Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital has a staff deficit of 284.
The hospital's human resources department says there are 468 staff against a requirement of 752.
Some 94 casuals were hired in the financial year 2017-2018 at a cost of Sh10. 3 million. But the Nairobi County Assembly Public Accounts Committee is investigating how this happened.
Forty-seven of the casuals work at Dandora health centre.
But county’s chief officer for Health Washington Makodingo said yesterday the hospital's board of management is allowed to authorise to hire temporary workers.
“Their emoluments are always approved in the quarterly budget by the Health Management Board as per the Facility Improvement Fund guidelines,” Makodingo said.
The Auditor General's report of the FY 2017-2018 had flagged this “as contrary to the Section 63 (1) of the County Government Act, 2012 which authorises the County Public Service Board to make appointments including promotions in respect of officers in the County Public offices."
Makodingo said the medical staff shortage is not confined to Mama Lucy as it cuts across all health facilities in the city.
“The hospital has a chronic shortage of skilled and unskilled staff. The 468 are inclusive of specialists, doctors, nurses, lab technologists and non-medical staff like clerks and accountants,” he said.
The CO said there had been a freeze of staff recruitment in the county. “Last year the county only managed to hire 40 nurses. Another 200 will be hired and some of them will be posted to Mama Lucy.”
Makodingo said the county needs to hire both skilled and semi-skilled workers this financial year.
The Health docket has in the past two financial years received the lion’s share of the county budget. In 2018-19, it got Sh6.2 billion and Sh6.3 billion in 2017-18. Some Sh7.4 billion has been allocated to the Health department this financial year. This is 21 per cent of the county's Sh35.3 budget.
Nairobi has 1,575 nurses, 1,160 of them members of the Kenya National Union of Nurses. The rest belong to the Kenya County Government Workers’ Union.
Last year, the Nairobi City County Public Service Board advertised for additional nurses. However, no hiring has happened because the board lacked a quorum.
The recruitment is expected to be concluded after the appointment and gazettement of a new board last month.
