Pumwani Hospital Workers In Go-slow After 41 Colleagues Tested Positive For COVID-19

Crisis looms at Pumwani Maternity Hospital after 41 healthcare workers tested positive for COVID-19.

Acting health director Dr Patrick Amoth confirmed the number on Tuesday.

According to the Nation, workers are downing their tools on grounds that the hospital management has kept mum on the very sensitive issue.

Those who spoke to the daily said the management has declined to release anymore results, posing a health risk to pregnant women.

Others noted that they have been forced to report to work as usual.

“We have a major problem here at Pumwani Hospital where I work. The government started testing staff for Covid-19 and the number of positive cases is rising,” a staffer told the daily.

Another said, “Tension is high at the facility because management has stopped releasing any more results. This has left us in a dilemma as we do not know who among us could be infected.”

Dr Amoth said that the other 100 employees at the hospital will soon be tested for the killer disease.

National Nursing Association of Kenya (NNAK) secretary general Alfred Obengo blamed the hospital management for the casual manner in which the matter was being handled.

“We cannot blame the government and the CS for sending the workers into an unsafe environment. The blame for this particular crisis squarely lies with the unit managers in the affected areas,” he said.

The association has urged workers to stay away from the their place of work until Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) are made available and the premises fumigated.

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe on Monday dismissed claims that there was a shortage of PPEs in health facilities.

“We have got more PPEs at the moment than we need. So it’s a question of individual hospitals and individual units ensuring that they have got them.

“We have not received any information from the management of hospitals in Nairobi that they don’t have PPEs. There’s no issue because we’ve got more than enough PPEs,” he opined.

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