Pateints left waiting because of the ongoing nurses' strike . [File, Standard]
Patients were left waiting for hours on Tuesday as the ongoing nurses’ strike put pressure on available healthcare workers attending to the large number of people seeking treatment.
At Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, Sharon Atieno arrived at about 10 am seeking treatment but was still waiting to be attended to by 3:47 pm.
"When I came in around 10 am, I found so many people to a point some were standing because the seats had all been occupied," she said.
Sharon also said some of those helping patients were student nurses from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and other medical schools, whom she identified from the writing on their nurses’ uniforms.
"Their uniforms have the school name and logo; that's how I knew," she said.
She said the students were helping in the hospital nurses' absence, but the large number of patients was overwhelming the available staff, with one healthcare worker sometimes needed by several patients at the same time.
For Maureen Achieng, the search for treatment had already taken her to more than one public facility.