Shianda Health Centre in Mumias East Sub County is receiving a huge number of patients straining the facility’s capacity.
By August this year, the hospital had received 15,000 patients against the required catchment of 10,830 patients per year.
The Clinical Officer in charge of the Facility Simwa Tatuli said the hospital is experiencing an influx of patients because of many issues that are happening in the community.
“This has led to a longer turnaround time of seeing patients because the facility has a shortage of staff,” he noted.
He added that the problem has also led to a shortage of drugs due to the increasing number of patients that has gone beyond the budgeted population of 10,800.
“Most of our patients will come to visit the facility and leave without the essential drugs that are needed. Our plea to the county and the national government is to make sure the facility is well staffed as per the number of patients we are supposed to see,” he noted.
He said the facility needs at least seven clinical officers and 14 or more nurses since the facility is providing 24-hour services including deliveries.
“We also need lab technicians, Nutritionists and other cadres to make sure the services here are of high quality,” he added.
Currently, it operates with seven nurses with only one overworked clinical officer who doubles up as the administrator and as well as serving the patients.
He said Shianda Health Centre has structures that can make it grow to a Level 4 facility. Currently, the Level 2 hospital, has a maternity wing, Female Ward and has 54 Bed Capacity.
“Some of the patients who come to the hospital complaining that the medics take a long time seeing them. It is not about the time you stay in the lab but the quality of the results that you get. Some tests can take quite some time, a test like BS can take a minimum of 45 minutes to get quality results, Typhoid can take almost 1 hour to get the results that are required,” he added.
He was speaking during a Community Scorecard forum where the Community Members visited the facility to assess the quality of Services that are being offered by the Shianda Health Centre.
The Community Scorecard is a program under the Timiza Ugatuzi through the Kenya Devolution Support Programme that is supported by the Act Transform Change(ACT) with financial support from the UKAid.
The pilot programme has been rolled out by Civil Society Organizations in 16 counties, with the Kakamega County Civil Society Organization Network implementing assessment of health facilities in Kakamega as its priority areas with a focus on Shianda Hospital.
The Project Manager for Kakamega County Civil Society Organization Network Donald Mumbo said the project aims to improve service delivery in health centres across the county for a healthy society.
“The Project started in March 2022 and was driven by the fact that there are so many service delivery accountability issues around the health sector in Kakamega county that are not being addressed,” he pointed out.
The Network conducted a baseline survey where they interviewed a sample size of 118 people around Shianda who complained about shortage of drugs, understaffing, and poor access to information.
Mumias East Sub County Medical Officer Alfred Abundo said the challenge facing the Shianda Health centre is understaffing whereby it has only 7 Nurses and One Clinical Officer.
“If we get more staff we will be able to elevate this facility to a higher level,” he noted.
He said Community Scorecard is a programme that is enabling the Health Officers to have a link with the community members and utilize the moment to educate them on health matters.
“Through this CSO, the community members communicate to us noting what they want and their perception of the facility and we are able to respond and tell them the actual status of the hospital,” he noted.
