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Pumwani services resume as nurses call off go-slow


Services at the Pumwani Maternity Hospital are expected to resume on Sunday after a go-slow by staff was called off.

The go-slow had been occasioned by an incident on Monday night, April 6, whereby relatives of a mother who had delivered demanded to watch over the baby lest it was stolen, explained Director of Communications at Nairobi Governor’s Office Walter Mong’are.

He said the relationship between patients and nurses at the hospital has been one laced with suspicion.

“They came in the middle of the night and called our nurses, ‘baby thieves’ and other insults. We took legal action against those relatives. But this affected the morale of nurses who were not keen to work from Tuesday that week.”

Mr Mong’are added that they had reached a consensus with the nurses by among other things, beefing up security in the hospital.

So far, there have been a series of strikes and sit-ins by the health workers angered by the suspicions that they are involved in stealing infants.

But the suspicions were made worse after an incident on January 5, where Mr Dedan Kimathi took his wife, Jacinta Wanjiku, to deliver at the facility. He would on the next day be told that their twin babies had died. Ms Wanjiku insisted she heard one of her babies cry, but the hospital said the babies were a still birth – having died about 12 hours before birth.

MISSING BABIES

However, DNA test conducted between January 27 and February 4 on the two bodies by the government chemist in Nairobi said the babies were not biologically related to Mr Kimathi or his wife, and worse, that the babies were not twins.

In an advertisement over the matter of the missing babies, which is currently under discussion at the Senate Health Committee, the statement by the Nairobi County and other health unions’ states:

“Together we stand in solidarity to state that the hospital staff have endured great pain, suffering and torture, following baseless allegations of child theft in the hospital.”

Another part read: “The staff have had to put up with insults, disrespect and negative image as a result of the sensationalism of an incident that is currently under investigation by the CID, the Senate Health Committee and the relevant professional regulatory bodies.”

Nairobi County Chief Medical Officer Robert Ayitsi said health workers at Pumwani were hardworking and were not baby thieves as the public views them.

He said: “Pumwani Maternity Hospital delivers an average 2,000 babies a month. We get about 25 abandoned babies a year who we find appropriate placement in various children homes. The nurses and workers therefore have never had any inclination whatsoever to take away any mother’s baby.”

The statement, which is signed by an unnamed acting County executive committee member – health services, further calls on patients to demand for their rights as per the “Patients’ rights charter”.