City Hall to get facelift at expense of dilapidated county hospitals
Pumwani Maternity Hospital may not get more staff after the county health budget was cut. PHOTO | FILE
City Hall has cut the budget for construction and equipping of hospitals by Sh316 million and raised the allocation for the refurbishment of county assembly chambers.
The health budget for the year ending this month has been slashed to Sh594 million from the Sh910 million that was allocated in the budget passed in June last year, according to the supplementary budget submitted to the county assembly on Wednesday.
The budget notice did not indicate projects in the health docket that have been affected by the cut. But the development budget had targeted the revamp and equipping of Pumwani Maternity Hospital, City Mortuary, construction of a 20-bed maternity wing in Dagorretti and rehabilitation of several clinics.
On the other hand, the county assembly development budget whose main item is the rehabilitation of the chambers was upped from Sh320 million to Sh406 million.
Refurbishment of the chambers has been going on for two years now with the assembly using Charter Hall for their sittings. The assembly spent Sh347 million in 2013/14 fiscal year for development which included the purchase of vehicles, rehabilitation of offices and the chamber.
The cut in the health development budget comes despite several reports by the county assembly health committee which paint a picture of neglect in the county’s clinics.
A report on Dandora II health centre last month said that the centre has no incinerator and it has a drainage problem that results in rain water mixing with sewerage.
It also says the dentist’s chair is broken and irreparable. Of the dental room, the committee added, “it is quite small and has no equipment. Patients are attended to while standing.”
The recurrent budget for health that is mostly used in paying the salaries of workers and equipping the hospitals and clinics also dropped from Sh5.2 billion to Sh4.3 billion, a Sh902 million difference.
This comes at a time when the health units have been pleading for more drugs and workers in stretched facilities like Pumwani Hospital.
The Dandora report showed a staff deficiency with only one clinical officer instead of four manning the centre. It added that the pharmacy has no drug supplies.
The health budget took the biggest hit in the supplementary budget introduced to the county assembly on Wednesday that slashed the entire development vote by Sh2.5 billion to Sh6.8 billion.
This represents 26 per cent of the entire budget, putting it below the recommended 30 per cent minimum spend.
The other major casualty of the development budget cut was the infrastructure sector whose allocation dropped from Sh5.3 billion to Sh4.2 billion.
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