A report tabled before the Senate Health Committee, investigating negligence at Mama Lucy Hospital has revealed that the maternity ward has 71 beds against 1,000 births monthly.
The maternity ward is divided into triage room, first-stage room, labour ward, post-natal ward, acute rooms, post-caesarean section rooms, sick antenatal room and sick postnatal room in which the 71 beds are distributed.
Of these 1000 births, 650 are normal deliveries while 350 are caesarian section deliveries.
Further, the labour ward has four normal hospital beds which serve as delivery couches.
The report revealed some of the rooms that are meant to hold only four beds have been cramped with six or seven beds, and still, in some of the rooms, some patients were sharing beds as reported by the Star.
It further disclosed that, due to the small size and layout of the delivery room, three new resuscitates were placed outside within the nurses’ station of the labour ward which is not ideal.
In terms of staff, the labour ward usually has five nurses during the day and four nurses at night.
This indicate a worrying state of congestion and under-staffing which can be attributed to over stretching of resources leading to poor health services.
The report was compiled by the nine-member team drawn from the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council, Kenya Health professions Oversight Authority, Clinical Officers Council, the Pharmacy and Poisons Board and the Nursing Council of Kenya after visiting the facility on November 9 on a fact-finding mission.
The team was appointed by the Kenya Health Professions Oversight Authority CEO Dr Jackson Kioko to undertake an inspection of the facility after a series of complaints from the public.
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