Dr. Jotham Micheni's contract has come to an end, and he has handed over the running of the institution to his deputy, Dr. Kabetu.His tenure will best be remembered as having completed renovations to Accidents and emmergencies depatrment, and instalation of ultra modern machines in the xray department. Dr. Micheni has all along kept a low profile during his tenure, avoiding direct confrontation with the workers, leting the departmental heads do the dirty work for him. The worker's union has made more gains during his tenure than under other directors. This is atributed to the change of tactics employed by the shop stewards: the use of legal means rather than strikes. Last week, four personalities were interviewed by the board of management for the post of the director. They include Dr. Kibosia, Dr. Irimu, Dr. Suleh, and Dr. Micheni himself.It is interesting to see how the issue of succesion will be played out. KNH is known to be run by PNU appointees, while KEMSA and KMTC by ODM appointees.. By this logic, DR(s) Kibosia, Owen, and Suleh, who are percieved to be affiliated to ODM will see the office of KNH director from the outside.Renewal of Dr. Micheni's contract is not on the cards, Dr. Micheni leaves behind a hospital which requires to minimise waiting time of patients at its accidents and emmergencies department, and which relys heavily on post graduate students to provide its services. The new director will have to find a solution to the perenial congestion in the othopedic wards, and bring senior doctors under control who are notorious for skiving duty. The maternity section has come under presure of late, with several mothers loosing their babies or their lives weekly at delivery. The hospital also needs to expand its ICU facilities to catter for increased demand .

yeah, the fellow has a delved deep - but no mention of plans for additional equipment for cancer treatment, dialysis, etc where waiting queues are almost as long as that of those waiting to win millions pap in sms promotions.
decongesting knh requires overhaul of medical facilities at division, district and provincial levels, more staff, more referral hospitals - and no corruption at kemsa

I read somewhere that the IFC was to take a controlling stake in K.N.H...did this actually happen and if so, when?

The lobying for the vacant post of KNH director continues behind the scenes in ernest. So far, the outgoing CEO, DR.Micheni is said to have scored the highest marks during the interview. There is wide speculation that DR.Kibosia, former KMTC director, and also the current director of prisons health services is the compromise candidate. Dr. Kibosia once acted as KNH director, and is thought to have developed anvanced networks during his tenures at KNH, KMTC, and the Kenya prisons.Dr. Kibosia's administrative stye, works in his favour. He is a democrat and a diplomat in his approach, qualities that the KNH adminisration badly needs at the moment, given that that the hospital is facing frosty labour relationship with its unionisable workers over a recent pay rise to health workers in the ministry of health, ; but has not been effected in KNH. It is the board's opinion that KNH workers are being paid more than their counterparts in the ministry of health, and some private hospitals. This is a strategy that was adopted in the early 90's to lure graduands to the institution, as the high cost of living in Nairobi was the major deterent factor. To cut down on the increasing wage bill, KNH has frozen recruitment of new staffs, and promotion of long serving employees.. This, naturally has not been taken kindly by the workers, whose counterparts in the ministry have been promoted on schedule..Further more, the staff to patient ratio is worsening daily as KNH looses its workforce through natural atritional forces. As a result, patients delay in being served at various service delivery points. The worst hit areas are the accidents and emmergencies department, which handles an average of 250 patients daily.The unit has a 5 bed ICU facility, thanks to the outgoing CEO. But the facility is now busting at its seams with an extra 5 beds being squeezed in to cater for the ever increasing arrival of very sick patients requiring ICU care. However, there has been nocomensurate increase in staffing. Of late, the death rate in the unit has shot up, with an average of 5 to 10 deaths daily.The public has been venting its anger against the casualty workers. Cases of staff members being roughed up by angry members of the public are on the increase. The hospital has done very little to protect its staff members, Some staff members have opted out of the department, to avoid these abnormally sressfull area, for quieter ares of the hospital. These are highly trained and well experienced staff members, some with brilliant managerial skills.The labour ward is another high stress department. Apparently, the public feels safe in the hands of the KNH midwife than any other public institution. On average, 40 others deliver in this unit daily, a half of them through caeserean section. The rest of the hospital is suffering from the same shortage. consider the orthopedic ward which averages 100 patients at any given day. the average number of nurses per shift still stands at 4. yet the majority of these patients are bed ridden, requiring help to fullfill basic tasksof self care, eg bathing, eating, turning in bed,and attending to the calls of nature. To bridge tyhis gap in staff shortage, the hospital has introduced part time shifts for those employees who are away on leave, or regular offs. The hourly rates have remained abnormally low. at the maximum rate of 160/= per hour, that is taxed at the rate of 15% to 30%.!