The number of Kenyans seeking physiotherapy services is increasing due to rising incidents of complications among individuals with chronic illnesses.
Nakuru Level 5 Teaching and Referral Hospital medical superintendent Aisha Maina said the services were previously mainly consumed by trauma and accident victims.
However, a new group is emerging from the rising number of patients with neurological conditions mainly caused by diabetes and hypertension.
According to the medical superintendent, last month 1,700 patients out of whom 255 are children, were admitted at the facility’s physiotherapy unit.
Maina warned that recreation lifestyles and substance abuse were additional factors exerting pressure on physiotherapy services across the nation.
She spoke while receiving a donation of 15 wheel chairs from Menengai Oil Refineries, to assist patient mobility at the physiotherapy unit. The company also donated sanitisers, detergents and soaps.
Present during the occasion were Health executive Zachary Gichuki Kariuki and the executive assistant to Menengai Refineries’ MD Simpson Osiemo.
Maina observed that despite the critical role undertaken by increasingly important physiotherapy units, many public and private institutions were underfunding them. The situation, she added, was aggravated by high cost of equipment.
The medical superintendent said, “The high costs are perhaps why few physiotherapists have ventured into private practice.
"The long queues in public facilities offering physiotherapy services suggest that demand for these services is high. As a result, patients who need daily physiotherapy sessions sometimes have to settle for monthly sessions with little chance of making good progress on their road to recovery.”
She called on manufacturers and distributors of physiotherapy apparatus to come up with better financing models for equipment, including leasing to those specialists starting out.
Osiemo said Menengai Refineries had made the donation as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility and that the company and the hospital were working together to identify areas where they can jointly collaborate.
He revealed that the company was committed to helping communities and public health facilities fight the Covid-19 pandemic by donating soap and sanitisers through Kenya Red Cross and county government.
He said the collaboration with Kenya Red Cross and county governments aims at curbing the spread of Covid-19 specifically in low-income areas as well as the vulnerable people across the country.
On his part, Kariuki called on other firms in Nakuru to follow suit and support ventures aimed at containing the spread of the deadly virus.
He said the donation of the wheel chairs came at an appropriate time.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
