Exclusive: My horrifying first-hand experience as a patient at PGH (Part 1)
Nakuru county referral and Teaching hospital (PGH) is the largest hospital in the South Rift region.
Sitting on an uncomfortable brown-painted wooden bench, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to experience over the next two hours on a Tuesday afternoon when I visited Nakuru Level 5 Provincial General Hospital (PGH).
You see, just like the hundreds of people in the hospital, I was waiting my turn to get a receipt for a general consultation for a problem which in my case I'd been putting off for a year.
Patients waiting to be served at the cashier/billing area at PGH Nakuru.
And like the average person who thinks their problem will go away, so did I.
In the queue, young and old wait patiently. Too tired to stand, they slide along the bench to take the places left by those who've been called to the cashiers.
As for me, I don't like sliding. I stand up and move to take the already warm seat left behind.
If this were a film and I was asked to give a brief synopsis, I would say that here at PGH the dead try so hard to stay alive for the living, while the sick try so hard to stay strong for the healthy.
Patients wait for their turn to see the doctor at the casualty area at PGH Nakuru. A security guard traverses the area to assists with any inquiries.
And the living? The living walk the line between the two, carrying hope for all.
But this is not a film, this is a real situation.
A security guard in a blue uniform directs patients to queues according to the method of payment - cash or mobile money.
She repeatedly tells patients to sit down and wait their turn, her tone of voice rather harsh and commanding. At one point, she threatens an impatient patient who seems tired of waiting in line for hours.
The two engage in a verbal confrontation that ends with both of them throwing words at each other.
I sit there wondering if my condition was critical, then the time it took to book my appointment would seem like a lifetime. At this point, 30 minutes pass before I get to the counter to collect my receipt.
It's been so long since I've been here that I go straight to a desk near the consulting rooms, only to be sent back to the triage area to have my blood pressure taken and be asked what exactly is wrong with me. I say my back and lumbar region.
This takes less than five minutes and I am back at the reception desk waiting to be shown to my consultation room. After a minute or two I hear my name and am told to go to Room 8 (Orthopaedic Consultation).
One of the consultation rooms at PGH Nakuru.
I get confused about where the consultation room is and ask a security guard there, who directs me back to the desk and now to corridor two, the room on my far left.
At 1:10pm I'm in another queue, waiting for my turn, facing an old poster advertising cleft surgery, with a piece of mosaic art next to it - or so it says.
A child cries, experienced and inexperienced doctors (you can tell) walk around, people waiting in line murmur, and a petri dish falls in one of the consulting rooms and I wonder if the good doctor in there will reuse it before sterilisation.
Empty waiting area at Nakuru Teaching and Referral Hospital (PGH) taken on June 31, 2024.
As I sit back to back with other patients, the doctor in the orthopaedic room is talking loudly. You can hear her through the thin walls with spaces above the roof.
As I continue to wait I witness what seems like a shift change happen, as doctors in white coats go in and out with their luggage.
It's 2.30pm and I still haven't had my consultation, even though I'm now face to face with the door. One woman, Ann*, tells me she was here very early because of her recurring back and leg problems. She says if it hadn't been for her doctor friend at the hospital, she wouldn't have been seen until now.
Our wait continues until it was finally my turn to see the doctor ......