Machakos, Wednesday January 31, 2018 KNA
The Machakos County government has refuted claims that services at the Machakos referral hospital has grounded to a halt.
Speaking to the press during a fact finding mission at the facility Tuesday, Health CEC Naomi Mutie said allegations by a section of the media that patients were not getting treatment at the hospital were unfounded and only meant to taint the facility’s image.
She urged residents to ignore the rumours and continue visiting the center to access medical services.
“Our hospital has not grounded to a halt contrary to some media reports that had been circulating in the past few days. We therefore want to take this opportunity to advise members of the public to dispel such unfounded reports and continue seeking treatment at the facility,” she said.
During the visit, the press was taken through various departments including the Renal Unit, MRI section and the X-ray department where services were going on normally.
Dr. Lutigard Fwaba, who is the hospital’s senior nephrologist, said the Renal Unit which has five units is currently attending to a maximum of 25 patients twice a week.
The officer said the unit which has an adjacent special isolation ward for hepatitis B patients is currently receiving at least 10 new patients everyday from two neighboring counties of Makueni and Kitui.
She nevertheless said that the number of patients visiting the specialized unit is manageable owing to the fact that the hospital has enough trained kidney specialists.
“This unit has really helped patients from Lower Eastern region many of who had to travel all the way to Kenyatta National Hospital to seek treatment. Today this is a thing of the past as the hospital is able to carry out dialysis to those under the National Health Insurance Fund scheme and even to those yet to get enlisted into the medical scheme,” she said.
On her part, Mutie said the county is planning to increase the number of dialysis machines from the current five bed units to 12 to help attend to the growing number of patients.
