It has been two years — and counting — since public hospitals in Nairobi were supplied with medicine and medical supplies.
The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority withdrew services over a Sh285 million debt. Kemsa demanded full payment before resuming supplies.
Poor patients, who are unable to access private hospitals, have suffered the most. They have been referred to private clinics and chemists for medication but the majority of them cannot afford services there.
The county government has left it to health facilities to source their own finances and donors to restock their shelves.
Some patients have been flocking to hospitals in neighbouring counties of Kiambu, Machakos, Kajiado and Murang’a. Others have been seeking treatment at Kenyatta National Hospital, overstretching the capacity of the referral facility.
A medical superintendent in one hospitals told the Star its services have been grounded due to lack of drugs.
“My staff are idle, because they have nothing to use. Remember, our services are subsidised, we charge almost a third of what private clinics charge,” he said. The medic said the money they get cannot sustain the operations.
Health executive Hitan Majevdia said each facility was instructed to buy medicines from private distributors using the money they generate from their daily operations.
“Our facilities charge for services like X-ray and lab tests, and thus raise money, which they use to buy medicine,” he said.
Majevdia said the county recently paid Kemsa Sh51 million, but the authority refused to restock the hospital. “They [officers from Kemsa] are supposed to have another meeting with the county secretary today [yesterday] to discuss these issues. After that, we will know the way forward,” he said.
Majevdia said about three million residents — mostly slums dwellers — rely on public health facilities for treatment as they have no medical cover and pay for out-of-pocket.
County secretary Peter Kariuki did not return calls for comments. The Star was unable to reach Kemsa chief executive officer Jonah Manjari.
Health committee chairman Peter Warutere said hospitals have been going through a tough time attending to patients.
“It has been really hard. I’m now happy because we have taken strides and very soon supplies will resume,” he said.
Warutere said the county is planning to pay the supplier another Sh100 million for supplies to resume.
The county’s three main hospitals — Mama Lucy Kibaki, Mbagathi and Pumwani Maternity Hospital — see about 3,000 patients daily.
The Star has established that the problems in the hospitals have been compounded by frequent delays by the National Hospital Insurance Fund to reimburse the facilities for free maternity services.
The debt has accumulated since former Governor Evans Kidero’s time. Last year he made a commitment to pay Kemsa Sh10 million every week until the bill is cleared. But the payments were not made.
When he took over in August last year, Governor Mike Sonko pledged to restock the hospitals but they are in the same indebted state as he found them.