Members of the Garissa County Assembly Health Committee have uncovered serious service delivery gaps at Garissa County referral hospital which has been at the receiving end of a public outcry over the services offered.
During an impromptu visit on Friday, which was occasioned by the allegations by Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei last week that the hospital was in bad shape, the MCAs sought to independently ascertain the veracity of the allegations.
Among the issues found include funding challenges, poorly motivated medical workers, dysfunctional medical equipment, and congestion in the hospital wards.
The MCAs also established that the hospital has not received medical drugs from KEMSA since October last year, which has forced patients to buy drugs from private clinics and hospitals.
Further, it was established that some renal and theatre equipment was not operational and that out of the six ICU beds, only two were operational.
Led by the Committee Chair Adan Hassan Odowa, the MCAs argued that although they had given the hospital a nod to use their own revenue, the executive was yet to give them autonomy over finances.
“Today we have visited the Garissa referral hospital on a support supervision mission to try and find out whether the services are being delivered to the members of the community of Garissa County and the challenges the hospital might be encountering and how they can be addressed,” Odowa said.
Nominated MCA Khadija Idriss regretted that despite the hospital collecting Sh155.7 million in the 2022/2023 financial year, it only received Sh33.5 million shillings out of Sh144 million allocated in the same period.
“There is a lot of public outcry out there in terms of delivery of quality healthcare. Administratively, the hospital has autonomy but when it comes to the finances, the hospital has no autonomy. In the 2022/2023 financial year, the hospital was supposed to receive Sh144 million from the county treasury but only received Sh33.5 million,” Khadija said.
“The county government must explain to this committee and to the people of Garissa County where that money has gone because even this financial year, this hospital has only received Sh10 million,” she added.
She regretted that while the hospital had dedicated workers, they were working in a difficult environment without uniform allowance, leave allowance, and faulty medical equipment and had not been promoted since 2015.
“For a health worker to provide quality services all these issues must be taken into account. It is only a healthy and comfortable mind that can deliver quality health services,” she said.
Bariki ward MCA Hassan Geley who is also a member of the committee said that while there was a lot of improvement in terms of service delivery and financial accountability, there was a lack of good management at the administrative level.
He called on the county administration to fastrack the purchase of new CT Scan, ICU and renal equipment, saying most of the medical equipment had not been serviced by the contractor following the expiry of the lease.
“Some of the renal unit beds are not functioning because the medical equipment lease agreement for repairs expired last year. The CT scan has not been operational in the last six months while out of the six ICU beds, only two are operational,” Geley regretted.
“Lack of drugs in this hospital is a worrying trend and we need the county government to tell us why KEMSA has not supplied drugs here. If it is about money, we need to know why the county treasury has not released money,” he added.
By Erick Kyalo
