SERVICE DELIVERY & COVID-19 PREPAREDNESS

In addition to the communication sent on April 2, 2020, we would like to update on the adjustments to our service delivery in order to continue providing essential care while ensuring the highest level of safety for patients, their families, and our staff.

1. Hours of Operation: The Muthaiga hospital continues to operate 24 hours every day. The satellite (outpatient) centres operate between 7.30am and 5.00pm daily.

2. Vaccination Services: All our facilities continue to provide vaccination services on appointment. The World Health Organization, the Kenya Paediatric Association, and the Ministry of Health all advise that vaccination services should not be interrupted. In April 2020, we vaccinated many children and adults across our network safely.

3. Fever in Children: While many sick children have fever as one of the presenting symptoms, they do not necessarily have Covid19 and should be evaluated and managed for the right diagnosis. Since the Covid19 outbreak, we have successfully managed many children with fever with particular focus on treating the underlying cause. The few that we have tested because they fitted the criteria for Covid19 testing have all tested negative.

4. Theater/surgical services: Our theaters continue to provide emergency and critical surgeries. We postponed the annual Easter Holiday theatre packages due to safety in view of Covid19. However, we have extended the 10% discount usually offered during the season up to May 31, 2020. Surgeries will be evaluated for safety on a case by case basis.

5. Paediatric Specialist Clinics: The specialist clinics are open to provide critical services for patients with illnesses where interrupting care will be detrimental to the patient. Our team will call the affected patients to confirm or re-schedule their appointments with the aim of adjusting the appointment timings to ensure social distancing during service delivery.

6. Dental Care: In order to provide emergency dental care to both children and adults, our dental facilities remain open. In addition to the enhanced infection control procedures, each dental procedure is evaluated for safety on a case by case basis. Kindly call the facility nearest to you in case of any emergency.

7. Covid 19 Preparedness: While we have not so far attended to or admitted a patient with Covid19, the hospital continues to implement the highest level of infection control and prevention in view of the global Covid19 situation. All samples that we have tested so far at the accredited laboratories have tested negative for Covid19. We remain vigilant, though, and have made adequate preparations to provide the highest level of care for any patient with Covid19 that might come to us.

We thank you for your understanding regarding the service adjustments that we continue to make to ensure the highest level of infection control, optimal preparedness for Covid19, and continuity in the delivery of regular services across our network.

Feel free to reach out to us should you need to clarify any issue relating to this subject matter, or indeed any other relevant issue, through 0207206000, 0730645000, 0709529000, 0110923200 and info@gerties.org.

Dr. Robert Nyarango
Chief Executive Officer