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Rot in Our Hospitals as Karatina General Hospital snubs a patient due to Lack of Funds

Post by : Ann Njambuya

Image of the Karatina General Hospital in Mathira constituency. the hospital is denying a patient critical care due to the lack of finances.

The main purpose of Public hospitals is to provide Kenyans with high quality medical services with little or no payments. However, this is not the case as a patient is currently being denied treatment at the Karatina General Hospital. The patient, Ms Dorcas Kianira, was admitted to Karatina General Hospital on October 10 after she severely fractured her thighbone in a motorcycle accident.

According to the Karatina General Hospital director Kelvin Kibaara. Ms Kianira’s injuries amounted to an emergency and were supposed to be addressed within 24 hours. However, she continues to wait for an operation because she doesn’t have money for the procedure.

A broken thighbone, also known as a femur fracture, is a serious and painful injury and medics say it is also life-threatening. The hospital is keeping the patient waiting until the end of October. “To buy time to see whether her relatives will raise the surgical expenditure as we manage the fractured bones not to start growing into surrounding muscles”.Mr Kibaara said.

The patient, Ms Kianira has no health insurance that would cover the procedure.

She was supposed to be “fitted with a metallic implant to reunite her femoral shaft fracture that left it 100 percent disjointed” within the first 24 hours of arriving at the hospital, Mr Kibaara said.The surgery has been postponed four times because she can’t pay for it.

Image of the Karatina General Hospital in Mathira constituency. the hospital is denying a patient critical care due to the lack of finances.

Delayed Surgery

“It is true that the patient’s surgery has been overdue … The implant is crucial for the surgery to proceed and it is good that they be available as prescribed,” he said.“So far, we have slotted her for surgery on Wednesday (October 19), subject to the implant availability. Her kin should follow it up and get them from a reputable supplier.”

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Ms Kianira, who hails from a poor family in Tigania West, Meru County. She was a domestic worker in Kirinyaga County when the accident happened. Her mother, Ms Rose Kinya, told Icon News that “we have been warned by medical experts that my daughter’s leg risks developing complications. This might result in its amputation from the hip joint”.

Ms Kinya said she could not raise the Sh 200,000 needed for the surgery . Sh 150,000 for intramedullary nails, Sh 40,000 for the surgical process and Sh 10,000 for admission.If the right procedure is followed, full recovery could take up to six months.

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“I wish I could talk with Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga or my own Governor Kawira Mwangaza to come to my rescue. My MP is John Mutunga. I am devastated beyond measure,” Ms Kinya said. She said her daughter dropped out of primary school after becoming pregnant and by age 16, she had two sons.

It is clear a human rights and the Hippocratic oath violation to watch as a patient suffers due to lack of finances more so in a public facility.

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