Joe Mbuthia

Joe Mbuthia.

| Joe Mbuthia | Nation Media Group

Mbuthia: Being in a ward makes one realise the importance of family and home

What you need to know:

  • There are instances of either nurses forgetting your medication.
  • Instances of the wrong food orders are also common.

It is my tenth day at the hospital and though I had told myself that I wouldn’t be bothered if they decide not to discharge me, it dawns on me that I was lying to myself. I miss home, my family, familiar surroundings and freedom of movement. 

One can only be held in four walls for so long. Limited movement, having some friendly chat with fellow patients and making the occasional walk to get some much-needed sun. 

Kenyatta University isolation wards are handling an average of 56 Covid-19 patients – three male wards and one female. 

Once more, it is evident the scourge is affecting men more than women.

I have interacted with at least three doctors give or take, and times, unless they introduce themselves, it is difficult to tell behind all that personal protective equipment (PPE) armour.

Gone are the days doctors used to wear their name tags as badges of honour. 

But it is understandable how clumsy it would be to pin a name badge over PPE.

So I quickly developed a routine. Bask around 11am to noon whenever the sun is out, and from 5pm just before the sunset, take my six laps around the hospital park. 

One is reminded of Morgan Freeman’s character Red in “Shawshank Redemption” – in prison, the one thing you have plenty of is time. 

Substitute hospital with prison. One has to be creative with time or you will end up bored to death. After all, hospital routine involves sleeping, taking medicine, eating and sleeping some more.

The hospital park is beautiful, with mowed grass and budding trees. It has 15 concrete benches where patients who can walk spend time resting. Whoever came up with this concept deserves an award.

It is evident that the hospital, new and well-run as it is, faces challenges like many other health institutions across the country. 

Emergency switches

Communication is one-way – nurses come to you and emergency switches either do not work or are never responded to. 

Should an emergency arise in the ward, well, you are on your own. I’ve banged the nurses’ station window enough times.

This, however, was always explained whenever I queried staffers: “I came in eight hours ago and have not finished my shift or ward rounds.” 

Small comfort for a really sick person, especially when it becomes all too common.

There are instances of either nurses forgetting your medication (it is brought later), asking for one’s name more than three times (may be something to do with the heavy PPE affecting normal hearing), or scheduling a procedure and ending up waiting for it on end.

Instances of the wrong food orders are also common. You are called and asked what you want for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You give your preferences but when the food comes, it’s a different order. This is especially messy for diabetics and those who do not eat red meat.

In pointing out some of these, I’m not trying to paint the administration as inept, rather, make them realise that all humans have limits, and staffing levels are woefully inadequate. 

Our doctor-patient ratios are way off and if we’re to combat this pandemic, we need to go all out and not engage it in the half-hearted manner we’re doing. 

Mr Mbuthia is former Nation quality editor. He is a consulting editor.