The Nakuru County Assembly Committee on Health has called upon its Senate counterpart to intervene and investigate why the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) was not supplying drugs as per the requirements of Naivasha Sub- County Hospital.

Speaking when he accompanied Nakuru County Assembly Committee on Health on a fact-finding mission at the said facility, Naivasha East Ward Member of the County Assembly (MCA) Stanley Karanja said the hospital was only receiving general supplies contrary to its needs forcing many patients to buy drugs from private chemists at exorbitant prices.

Karanja, a member of the Health Committee said they will soon launch investigations into the issue of procurement and usage of drugs at the facility where he raised allegations that some unscrupulous individuals were diverting the drugs to private pharmacies causing untold suffering to the patients.

The Health Committee chair who is also the Elburgon Ward MCA, Njuguna Mwaura stated that the hospital has been facing various challenges in the past which the current county administration seeks to address.

Njuguna noted the hospital's resources have over time been overstretched owing to the huge number of patients, as the hospital also receives patients from the neighboring counties such as; Nyandarua, Kiambu, Narok and as far as Laikipia who depend on it, thus over-stretching the facilities and resources.

During a meeting with the hospital management, it emerged that the hospital is understaffed an issue that the chair assured members of the public that it will be resolved by the county government to enhance service delivery.

He noted that Nakuru County governor, Ms. Susan Kihika was committed to ensuring that the facility is well equipped owing to its importance in the region and its strategic location near the Trans- African highway.

Njuguna singled out the new outpatient wing at the hospital constructed in partnership with the county government and the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), saying the unit once equipped will go a long way in improving service delivery to the public.

According to the committee, the county government is working out a mechanism to sort out sh. 245 million pending bills owed to different suppliers. Njuguna noted some of the bills have been pending since 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic struck the country.

The fact-finding mission of the committee comes amid allegations of several cases of maternal deaths at the hospital in the recent past due to what has been termed as professional negligence on the part of the hospital staff but the management has vehemently denied these allegations.

The most recent death is alleged to have occurred a fortnight ago where a 23- year-old woman (name withheld) allegedly died, after giving birth where she had been admitted for three days after developing complications.

Following the incident, Governor Kihika disbanded the hospital board of management bringing in a new one to improve the oversight of the facility.