NMS Blames Nurses Strike For Mother Giving Birth Outside Pumwani Hospital

Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) has blamed the nurses strike for incident during which a mother gave birth outside Pumwani Hospital.

The incident which took place on September 13 happened two days after nurses went on a “go-slow”.

The caregivers have since returned to work after they and the NMS leadership agreed on a return to work formula.

Director of Health Services, NMS Josephine Kibaru Mbae has apologized for the unfortunate incident that has caused uproar on social media under the hashtag RespectOurMothers.

In a statement, Ms Mbae said that the security guard had on the material day denied the mother access into the facility but a nurse on duty came to her aid.

“The security guard denied the patient access to the premises in a very unfortunate incident before a nurse from the maternity ward was notified of the occurrence and rushed to the scene to assist in the delivery and admission to the maternity ward,” Mbae said.

Commending the nurse for rushing to the mother’s aid, Ms Mbae added that the NMS will train front office staff in all its facilities and security will be changed.

“Going forward officers from the National Police Service will augment the provision of security at the Pumwani Hospital, Mbagathi Hospital, Mama Lucy Hospital and Mutuini Hospital in Dagoretti to prevent disruption of services,” she said.

The mother and child were discharged on September 18.

“We take this opportunity to apologise to all Kenyans and our mothers in particular for this unfortunate incident.”