Agony for patients at Bura Level Four Hospital as residents decry poor services

Locals have decried poor services at the Bura Level Four Hospital as they demand better amenities at the facility.

At the hospital, expectant women and lactating mothers have been forced to share a ward with male patients.

The one-building unit is separated by a board, and the two genders have no choice but to share lavatories.

The disorder has angered residents in the area causing an uproar and protests across the constituency demanding better health services from the county administration.

According to Maryam Kusow, a caregiver, the hospital has lacked an exclusive ward for the different genders, creating an uncomfortable environment for female patients.

"These are vulnerable women, the hospital knows that the environment they place such women is also vulnerable, they are exposed to rape and other SGBV vices," she said.

Further, she notes that patients admitted to the hospital have to depend on their respective families for food lest they starve.

She reveals that in most circumstances, families coming from far away are forced to hustle in the town to get money to feed their patients.

"This is a hospital that was good seven years ago. Its situation has been deteriorating year by year as we watch. We are at the level where we don't have a hospital anymore," she said.

Fatuma Kanchora, a midwife at the hospital notes that the facility is of no help to its patients, citing frustration and embarrassing incidents while seeking medical services.

Some of the patients at on eof the wards at the Bura Level Four Hospital. (Photo: Farhiya Hussein)

According to Kanchora, she has been forced to intervene in incidents where expectant women have struggled to get the required attention.

Complacency

"There is a lot of complacency in the facility, I have had to deliver some women in the open, on the ground, sometimes I catch babies when they are almost dropping on the ground, women here are left to fight for themselves," she said.

The elderly midwife notes that the incidences of mothers losing their children to pneumonia after delivery due to negligence are countless, urging the Department of Health to act promptly on the matter.

Her sentiments are echoed by Suleyman Hassan, a youth leader in Bura who reiterates the deplorable situation in the Bura Level Four Hospital.

He notes that specialists in the facility have to be called from home before they can attend to patients.

"The pharmacy is always closed by 1 pm, the health officers leave work at 3 pm and after that, if you have a patient, you have to find them in their townhomes, it's a terrible situation we have," he said.

Further, he reveals the plight of patients on referral, who have to incur the cost of fuel for the ambulance before they can be rushed to their respective hospitals in Garissa.

In Garissa, the patients have to alight In the streets and board another vehicle to access medical attention at the Garissa Hospital lest they are rejected.

One of the wards at the Bura Level Four Hospital. (Photo: Farhiya Hussein)

"If you are referred from Tana River to Garissa or Kilifi, the respective counties reject you, because they believe we have a referral hospital that can attend to us, which is quite the opposite, so we have to lie about where we come from," he said.

Nutritional supplements

Among other issues the residents note they have been denied include nutritional supplements for their children, which they claim are being stolen from the hospital and are being sold in the shops in Bura town.

Also, they note that drugs from the hospital are being sold in private pharmacies, whose majority owners are medical officers from the facility.

"We don't have a hospital here, it is an enterprise to benefit a few individuals, and yet the respective department has a budget of Sh1.4 billion," said Abdifatah Minhaj, a resident.

The facility lacks a functional theatre whose construction has stalled for eight years, hence residents have to rush their patients more than 250 km in Mombasa to be attended to.

Health Executive Kofa Jarha however notes that the situation is not as dire as the residents claim, noting that the administration has made tremendous progress in upgrading the hospital.

"We have some gaps and we are making more adjustments to improve the services in the hospital. We however are going to investigate the issues raised with regard to complacency by our officers and shall take necessary action," he said.

Among the notable gaps, Jarha says the administration has budgeted to resolve to include the incomplete infrastructure in the facility.

He notes that the department also proposes to finalise payment of food suppliers to the facility, which had withdrawn services owing to pending bills.

"We have had an engagement with the suppliers, and we shall settle the pending payment issues, as we work on consistent modalities to ensure patients are served in the hospital,"he said.