ICU BEDS, A SITUATION IN KENYA!
Covid-19 came saw and conquered. The virus has unveiled a number of things, one being the fibre of humanity which can be thick or thing according to the cases you come across. The pandemic has shone light to marriage having the highest divorce rates ever recorded. Most importantly the pandemic has proved that when it comes to healthcare all countries are developing nations from the United States of America to my country in East Africa. You’d think that with all the money directed to the ministry of health in 2019 93.3 billion to be precise, the pandemic would find us armed with the basic. This, as we know, was not the case.
As the number of covid-19 cases keeps rising in the country, hospitals and designated covid-19 centres are slowly but surely getting overwhelmed. The health care budget has increased by 30% in the last two financial years. National treasury data shows that the health ministry budget increased from KSh47.4 billion in 2014/15 to KSh90 billion in 2018/19. The increment took place in both the national and county government levels. In 2017/18 the national healthcare budget was 61.6 million while the county government was 107.5 billion. In the following financial year 2018/2019, an increase of 30% was witnessed with the national budget coming to a total of 90% while county government came to a total of 112.9%.
With these cosmic amounts one would expect quality health care in both governments ut this is not the case. Access to quality primary health care is still a pipe dream one that COVID-19 managed to unearth. Kenya as a nation has only 518 Intensive care Unit beds. Out of these 439 had already been occupied by patients across the country. Nairobi County has the highest number of ICU beds at 247. Hospitals within Nairobi county with the highest bed capacity include; Kenyatta National Hospital at 55, Nairobi West hospital- 17, Kenyatta University Hospital-44, Nairobi Hospital- 16 and Aga Khan Hospital with 11 ICU beds respectively. Moi Teaching Referral Hospital has 20 beds while the Coast General Teaching Referral hospital in Mombasa County has 12 beds. However, there are counties with no single critical care beds. These include; Kitui, Nyandarua, Laikipia, Turkana, Elgeyo Marakwet, Marsabit and Migori counties.
In recent news, isolation centres and designated national Covid-19 hospitals overflowing with both ailing and asymptomatic patients, Kenyans are wondering what the next move will be. The Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral, and Research Hospital (KUTRRH), a 300-bed hospital, which had been transformed to manage Covid-19 patients had only three beds left, while both Infectious Disease Units at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and Mbagathi Hospital unit under KNH, were already full to capacity. This means that no more patients, even those who may need care will get a bed at any of these three facilities. With this in mind, the ministry of health is planning to include private hospitals and at some point,home-based care for some cases. Nairobi Metropolitan Service announced Monday that Mama Lucy Hospital had been designated as a Covid-19 isolation facility as the number of coronavirus cases soars to 2,474 confirmed cases.
Informal settlements including Kibra, Mathare, Kawangware, Lang’ata, and Eastleigh are the worst affected places in Nairobi. A new 66-bed maternity unit at Mama Lucy Hospital complete with an ICU, a High-Dependency Unit, and general wards will now be used to isolate Covid-19 patients. The Kenya health facilities oversight authority has been assessing hospitals across the country to identify suitable Covid-19 isolation centres.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe acknowledged that the three initial isolation centres are full and the ministry was considering having asymptomatic Kenyans get isolated at home.
“We are looking into developing home-based and community care, provided that it’s in accordance with WHO protocols which we are currently reviewing and domesticating in line with our situation,” said Mr Kagwe.
He informed that in cases where families and people in the same household cannot self-quarantine at home, the government will take charge.
“We have to change tack,” he said during a daily briefing at Afya House, Nairobi, on Thursday.
Speaking of changing track, when will money from the COVID-19 fund be put to good use?