Shalom Community Hospital in Machakos county. PHOTO | COURTESY
Shalom Community Hospital in Machakos county, which has lately been on the news for all the wrong reasons, has been closed and its managing director, Dr George Onyango arrested.
Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua on Monday gave the facility up to 6pm to finish attending to outpatients and 48 hours to clear the wards and transfer the patients to nearby facilities.
The Machakos county government and Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board have also revoked the hospital’s business permit and operational license until further notice.
HOSPITAL’S CLOSURE
This after investigations undertaken by the Ministry of Health officials together with officers of the Kenya Medical Board, Nursing Council of Kenya, Clinical Officers Council, Pharmacy Board found the hospital not fit to operate.
Other staff members who were arrested during the hospital’s closure include directors of the hospital, Hospital administrator, Doctor in charge, Pharmacist in charge, Clinical officer concerned and a patient attendant.
The hospital’s closure follows the death of a child at the facility on Sunday after a clinical officer and pharmacist administered a wrong dosage of a drug (20 times more than recommended).
Investigations have also revealed that the person who administered the injection was not a trained health worker but a hospital attendant with no medical training.
ARRESTED
According to the investigations, the drug administered to the infant (morphine) is a narcotic and should not have been the first dose of prescription.
About a fortnight ago, a woman delivered at the hospital’s reception area as nurses on duty enjoyed their cup of tea.
The hospital’s administrator Thomas Ndolo was subsequently arrested and remanded. Edna Nyarange his co-accused was released on Sh200,000 bond or Sh50,000 bail.
They were charged with professional misconduct at Mavoko law courts.
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