A committee looking into the various alleged cases of medical negligence at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital has raised concerns about the general design of the hospital.
The nine-member team was constituted by the Kenya Health Professions Oversight Authority CEO Dr Jackson Kioko to undertake an inspection of the facility.
The inspection which was conducted on November 9 came after a series of complaints from the public, including the case of a mother who lost her life delivering twins over what the family termed as negligence on the side of the hospital.
In their report tabled before the Senate health committee, the team noted that the hospital was built in a way that hampers smooth and logical patient flow.
According to the report, the theatre for instance is located on the first floor opposite the main entrance into the maternity ward, yet the labour ward is located close to the other end of the ward.
“This means that a patient with complicated labour has to be wheeled across the entire ward to get to the theatre,” the report says.
“Similarly, a patient admitted through the accident and emergency has to be wheeled past the main entrance into the hospital, up the ramp to get to the theatre,” it adds.
The team further found that due to the small size of the delivery room, the three resuscitaires are placed outside the labour ward, as the room can only handle four beds.
“However, reducing the delivery beds would be an injustice, as it is not uncommon to find all the delivery beds occupied by patients in the second stage of labour,” the report states.
According to the team, resuscitaires should be placed in the room where the babies are delivered and should be used to give immediate care to the newborns and not used only when the baby has been deemed stable by the midwife.
In general, the level 5 facility which offers both primary and secondary healthcare services has a total of 188 inpatient bed capacity and serves a population drawn from the whole of Eastlands, Nairobi and neighbouring Machakos and Kiambu counties.
