The Kenyatta National Hospital board yesterday confirmed it suspended embattled chief executive officer Lily Koros and director of clinical services Bernard Githae following the brain surgery mixup.
The decision was relayed to Health CS Sicily Kariuki on March 2, who communicated it to the public on the same day. The board appeared before the parliamentary Health committee.
KNH chairman Mark Bor said a board subcommittee led by Dr Daniel Githeki recommended the suspension.
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The full board ratified the decision on March 3 and officially informed Koros and Dr Githae on the same day.
KNH head of legal services Calvin Nyachoti said Koros and Dr Githae were sent home to allow a special audit of operational systems.
He said the hospital’s human resources operational manual allowed the board to send on compulsory leave officials with the highest responsibility at any level.
“Systems audit is specifically looking at clinical systemic failures. It looks at systemic lapses and it was felt these two officers should step aside to allow the audit. It’s not a judgment on their culpability,” Nyachoti, also the corporation’s secretary, said.
Bor said, “Sending someone on leave is not the harshest measure. You could interdict and we did not interdict anybody. The CS had reason to be angry, people were asking her questions she could not answer.”
Appearing separately before the Senate Health committee yesterday, Kariuki said she supported the board’s decision to restore public confidence.
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“There was a lot of public outcry when the matter was reported in the media. The CEO also on the same day filed a report to my office that there was public outcry. We needed to give some level of public confidence, and agreed with the KNH board to send the CEO on compulsory leave,” she said.
Earlier, Koros and Dr Githae appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Health and explained how they were suspended.
MIXUP REGRETTED
Koros expressed her regret that Kariuki learnt of the horror surgery through the media on March 2.
Kariuki visited the hospital on March 2 afternoon and met with the management and a subcommittee of the board at around 2pm.
“I was present in the meeting, but, together with the hospital management, we were told to step out. After 20 minutes we were called in.
The two of us were told to hand over immediately. I received the suspension letter on March 3 and did the handover until 10.30pm at night,” Koros said.
The MPs accused Koros of being too aloof in running the hospital. Chuka Igamba Ng’ombe MP Patrick Munene said the CEO appeared not to understand how the clinical department operates.
Nairobi Woman Representative Esther Passaris and Kesses MP Swarup Mishra proposed departments of the hospital be made autonomous and managed by independent CEOs.
Koros said this would be a viable plan because it was increasingly becoming impossible to properly oversee the entire institution.
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“We can make several departments semi-autonomous. It’s not possible as we expand the entire institution to oversee it from one office,” she said.
Koros said KNH faces acute staff shortage because they have only 1,500 nurses and 264 doctors.
The facility needs 800 more nurses and 172 doctors.
KNH relies on postgraduate students from the University of Nairobi to conduct about 80 surgeries daily.