The drastic drop in the number of patients seeking services at Isiolo Referral Hospital has been blamed on the criticism surrounding the newly established Intensive Care Unit for Covid-19 patients.
Health workers have claimed that the county nurse who died last month was being rushed to health facilities in Nairobi for ventilator services because the county ICU has no personnel to run it and the entry of politicians into the ICU debate continues to worsen the situation
The referral facility that serves over 12, 500 patients monthly from as far as Meru and Samburu counties is now struggling with tens as the ongoing politics further broadens the current rift between Governor Mohamed Kuti and a section of the county MPs.
According to the hospital records, the people started shunning the facility after Senator Fatuma Dullo demanded its temporal closure claiming that it was no longer safe for residents and that the county was poorly prepared to handle critical Covid-19 patients.
The county boss still insists that the nurse and a conservationist who died while being taken to Nairobi and Nyeri for ICU service respectively were transferred on their families’ choice and not due to lack of similar services at Isiolo Referral Hospital.
After the launch of the centre which has six ICU beds supported by seven high dependency unit on April 10, 2020, Kenya Medical Training College deployed their two critical care nurses to train health workers at the hospital.
It has however been established that the facility does not have critical personnel including anesthesiologists, biomedical technicians, and doctors trained in specialized care.
Recently, the county recruited critical care nurses and the two offered by KMTC were handling some of the cases.
Days after the hyped launch, pictures of a pickup being loaded with machines at a private hospital in Isiolo town went viral being claimed to be the ones installed at the county facility attracting probe by police and a Senate committee.
The county residents are still waiting for the Senate ad-hoc committee that was then led by Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja to make public its findings on the state of the ICU.
Last week, another team from the Ministry of Health led by Director of Public Health Dr Francis Kuria and Nursing Services Director Dr Mary Ishepe visited the facility to evaluate its level of preparedness to battle pandemic following various complaints from the residents.
The locals are concerned over the increased politicking over the ICU facility and fears that the situation may worsen if politicians continued to politic.
