Health managers at the Isiolo Referral Hospital want the facility upgraded to Level Five status to help in effectively attending to many casualties occasioned by banditry in the area and also aid in provision of improved health care.
Led by the County Chief Officer for health Mr. Peter Ngechu and the Chairman of the County Health Management Team Mr. Hussein Jama, the officials said the facility was overstretched in terms of provision of health care, since many fatalities caused by banditry and rustling activities in the region were rushed to the Hospital.
They said hardly a week passes without serious fatalities from gunshots being brought to the hospital thereby a lot of resources directed to un-called for emergencies at the expense of the other health care services.
Mr. Jama said the workers want the National and the County governments to ensure the facility was upgraded to Level Five status, which would go along with additional specialized equipment and personnel so as to offer quality services during emergencies instead of referring cases to Meru or Nairobi.
The County Health Management Team Chair said Isiolo Hospital has been receiving various emergencies from Meru, Laikipia, Samburu, Marsabit and as far as Garissa and Wajir Counties that share boundaries with Isiolo.
Mr. Ngechu who represented Isiolo Governor Abdi Ibrahim Guyo at a meeting in the Hospital, said the County administration has initiated a plan to have the National Government okay the upgrading of the Hospital.
On refrigeration of the Hospital’s Mortuary, Mr. Ngechu said the services had been contracted and could be finalized in a month’s time adding that the County had a policy in pipeline to expand and modernize the morgue so as to cater for more bodies other than the capacity of 16 only.
Mr. Jama had also echoed the need for the private developers to come up with commercial ‘Funeral Homes’ so as to ease pressure on the Isiolo Referral Hospital that was constructed in 1989 when the town’s population was barely 10,000 residents.
The Medical Officer of health in charge of surgical services, Dr. Abdikarim Abdikadir revealed that a woman who lost her eight-year-old son and is admitted at the Hospital with two other children with gun wounds following last Saturday’s banditry attack in Oldonyiro Ward are out of danger.
Dr. Abdikadir said at least four people are rushed to the Hospital with serious gun wounds every two weeks where some die while undergoing treatment, hence the need to upgrade the facility.
By David Nduro
