BY INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER.

WHEN he wrote his Book- ”DO YOU KNOW ANYBODY” in ‘ THE WINNER AND OTHER STORIES’, obviously Magayu Magayu had not been to the Kisumu based provincial general hospital commonly known here as Russia.

And he probably never will. Am for sure he did not even have the Nyanza’s largest referral hospital in his mind when he penned the book.

In his book the author tries to bring to the fore the rot that existed in one public hospital in Uganda then and how patients seeking services at the facility were forced to bribe their way through desperate relatives to be treated.

Those who” knew somebody” at the hospital stood the best chance of being attended to,states Magayu in his story which was one time a set book for KCSE candidates taking Literature.

Several kilometers way in another country and decades later, what seemed like a work of fiction by the writer then in Uganda now appears to find more relevance and meaning.It is what is confronting many a patient and their relatives seeking medical services at the new Nyanza provincial hospital.

Investigations by this weekly newspaper journalist revealed the daily horror experiences that confronts both the sick and their kinsmen every time one has to visit this facility in situated along Kakamega road in Kisumu.

Cases where patients lose their dear lives allegedly due to negligence has reportedly become so common that it no longer makes news as this writer came to realize.

Not so long ago,this year a patient reportedly died while at the bench waiting to be attended and strange as it might sound,the body remained there allegedly for a record three hours before it could be picked by the mortuary attendants until after the deceased’s relative complained.

Even though the incident made it to the local print media with one of the leading local dailies carrying the story,nothing much was done by the authorities to ensure justice was done to the family.It just went into the statistics kept by the hospital administration.

This is simply a clearly case of being too close to help yet also very far way from it as arrogant nurses and hospital staff pass-by casually and with least of sympathy to their sick clients as though nothing strange is happening at all.

But more strange is the way in which the hospital administration is quick to dismiss relatives or good Samaritans who dare raise a finger over such incidences. The administration is known to immediately spring onto the defense of their not so appealing staff even without listening to the pleas of the relatives.

The hospital for example has never at any given time kept a stock of the most essential drugs. Most patients have to buy these drugs which they really need from the ever mushrooming chemists outside the hospital that are recording booming business.

What quickly comes to mind is whether the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency-KEMSA , which is charged with the responsibility of supplying drugs to public hospitals ever think of doing so to the Nyanza Provincial General Hospital in Kisumu.

If they do then one wonders where do these drugs go? In the past it has been claimed both by the relatives of the sick who take their patients to the facility and the general public in Kisumu that a section of corrupt hospital staff steals the drugs meant for the sick and trade the same to the ever growing number of chemists neighboring the facility.

Some of the staff are also allegedly running some of the chemists in the town.

After prescription,some patients have in the past been instructed or advised by the staff to buy drugs from certain chemists or specific private pharmacies which raise eyebrows even further.

Surely these are claims that would need to be probed urgently and thoroughly with a view to nailing crooks who create artificial drug shortage at this very important medical facility that receives all manner of medical complications from patients across the province.

The worst hit patients are those who doctors advise should go for various operations at the theater. Many such patients are recommended to go for X-Ray services usually conducted at the hospital at a reasonable fee but whose results take months to be released.

For instance,some patients had their specimen taken to the lab several months ago but the results are yet to be received because a specialist who interprets them has not done so and the doctors can not proceed with treatment.

Curiously though,those who heed the advise of the staff to take such specimens to expensive private labs in Kisumu town have their results released immediately and strangely the interpreter is the very officer who is hired and posted by the government to work at the provincial hospital where he is never present.

Many patients whose relatives can not afford the services of the private labs whose proprietors offer kick backs to the specialist are never so lucky. They either die while still waiting for the lab reports of the specimens or resign to fate.

Woe unto you if you happen to have a patient in any of the wards,the most notorious being ward 2.

Relatives are reportedly harassed by the cruel nurses who instead of nursing the sick are only known to be the worst molesters.

While their colleagues in private practice are known to be very kind,caring and supportive, these ones of” Russia ” are different.

Here,relatives must be side by side of their sick kinsmen to nurse them and they are made to pay Ksh.200 for sleeping in the wards each night. Never mind that they pay and still sleep on the floor after all the hospital never have enough space even for the very sick,many of whom share beds.

Those who have ever had a patient here will tell you that its the worst thing that can ever happen to you in this part of the world.

”Having a sick person here is the worst thing that can happen to you.A patient here is to the nurses what bhang or any illegal stuff can be to a policeman.Some of these nurses are so cruel and one fails to understand why they took up this job in the first place.” said a lady taking care of a relative at the facility.

The hospital built with funds from the Russian government through lobbying by the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga when the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta was the president is crying for changes and attention by the top echelons of the ministry o medical services and the sooner it gets it the better for the suffering locals who have nowhere to turn to.

Can any one listen to the cry of these helpless citizens because at the moment matters does not appear to be helped by the fact that the minister in charge of this ministry is also a native of this region.

Is it a coincidence that the senior most officer who seems to be presiding over the rot that is Nyanza provincial hospital is a sister in -law to professor Peter Anyan’g Nyon’go who is also the MP for Kisumu rural where some of these patients come from.

Those who have dealt with her alleges that she is too arrogant and will never listen to any body no matter who they are.May be it is so because the minister in charge is a family member and can afford to look the other side when things go wrong.

Rashid Mzee’s is the most current case of a patient dying at the hospital allegedly due to negligence.

He was on his way home when he was hit by a lorry whose driver never bothered to stop.

It was on 6th of this month and well-wishers rushed him to the provincial hospital where he was admitted the same day. After two days doctors who handled him released him but on condition that the relatives buy a drug which the medics termed as very expensive.

But the deceased family which is totally orphaned could not afford to buy the prescribed drug. The hospital on its part insisted they did not have it in stock.

While at home the pain became unbearable and his sister, Jane decided to take Rashid back to the same facility and on the 9th,he was readmitted at ward 2.

Its not very clear what exactly happened but Rashid’s sister claimed that the patent was never attended this time round even though nurses were notified of his deteriorating health and doctors continued to make war rounds.

”The wound in his broken legs became worse and he was bleeding profusely but when i asked to seek help from the nurses they told me my brother was not any special and he would be treated like any other patient in he wards. I saw my brother;s leg begin to rot right in the wards and bleeding never stopped.”She said moments after Rashid passed on.

Before Rashid died at his ward 2, his brother and the sister together with unidentified women leader from the Muslim community were desperately seeking to have audience with Dr. Juliana Otieno,the hospital medical superintendent.

But when they were still narrating their ordeal in the hands of a cruel hospital staff with the hope that she would grant them a favor to save his life,information came in that Rashid the accident victim had died waiting to be served.

Even as relatives picked the body of the young man for burial,they were convinced that he bled to death and could have been saved were the hospital personnel handling his case were more caring.

When she was reached for comment,Dr. Otieno dismissed claims of negligence adding that it was their intention to lose patients.

May be like the family of Rashid,many more still hope that justice will one day be done.

ENDS.