A new route of receiving Covid-19 patients at the hospital has also been designed including special picking points by ambulances.
A pharmacist said that some people have been asking for ventilators and other ICU equipment.
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As Covid-19 cases rise in Nakuru County, the devolved unit has set up a 20-bed VIP isolation centre at Provincial General Hospital Annex.
A top county officer at the Health department told Nation that senior county officials who will test positive will be admitted at the Annex VIP isolation centre.
“The isolation is ready to receive VIP patients who are Covid-19 positive and more casual workers have been employed to fumigate the isolation centre,” said the official.
A new route of receiving Covid-19 patients at the hospital has also been designed including special picking points by ambulances.
INCOMING PATIENTS
“All the mapping was done last week on Friday and incoming patients will not interact with other patients in the hospital,” added the source.
Efforts to get comments from the County Health Executive Gichuki Kariuki and Chief Officer Samuel King’ori who has been coordinating the exercise were futile.
However, sources told the Nation that the county had delayed testing senior officers and the county executive members as it had not set up isolation centre for the officials.
“The county has started with county directors, executive members and Members of the County Assembly because it has realised they cannot be accommodated at the Nakuru Level Five Hospital,” said the official.
The move comes as the county launches mass testing of top county and executives. Positive cases in the county have hit more than 190 while at least 5,800 have been tested for the virus.
The residents have been inquiring about Intensive Care Unit equipment in most of the medical outlets in Nakuru town. Some of the residents want to set up ICU beds in their homes.
ISOLATION CENTRE
Dr Timothy Olweny of Evans Sunrise Hospital said his facility has not set up any VIP isolation centre.
“At Evans Sunrise Hospital, we don’t regard Covid-19 cases on the basis of status because that would be a wrong approach. We have set aside rooms but not necessarily for VIPs,” said Dr Olweny.
However, he said the hospital will set up rooms for healthcare workers at the facility should they contract the disease.
He said it was not possible to set up an ICU bed at home saying “it is not equipment that treats Covid-19 patients and buying it is a selfish thing to do.”
“The level of expertise required to manage ICU equipment is so high that even if you bought them, they would serve no purpose,” said Dr Olweny.
He said the best approach is to ensure all medical facilities have a fair distribution of these resources that are easily accessible to everybody.
“Insurance companies are not compensating Covid -19 related medical expenses or deaths and there is need to pull resources as the expenses at ICU for people with Covid is very high and even the rich are now in a tight corner,” said Dr Olweny.
He said in some hospital ICU bills is Sh200,000 a day which many insurance firms cannot pay.
He said the delay in releasing Covid-19 test results leads to misallocation of resources. He said the people collecting samples are taking long to collect them in private hospitals.
He said the Covid-19 response funds has not paid any bills related to the virus.
A pharmacist said that some rich people have been asking for ventilators and other ICU equipment.
“We are now receiving many inquiries about ventilators and this means many people want to set up ICU beds in their homes,” said Dr Victor Achoka. Nakuru has limited ICU equipment.
Source: Daily Nation
