Kilifi,KENYA:A stock-out of reagents has crippled major laboratory operations at the Kilifi county referral hospital for months.
According to sources at the hospital who sought anonymity, the services have been unavailable for several months with patients being forced to seek the services in other hospitals.
The services currently unavailable are urinalysis which tests for diabetes, kidney complications and other urinary tract infections, Hemoglobin estimation, Blood donation,blood grouping and Cross-matching.
On Friday , following prolonged complaints from members of the public, the Laboratory manager Juma Rashid Yeya issued a notice to all clinical departments that the services would unavailable.
“We are sorry that apart from chemistry and hematology stalemates; The following laboratory services will not be available due to reagent stock-outs” Reads part of the announcement issued by Juma.
According to medical dictionary , a reagent is a chemical substance known to react in a certain way aiding in detecting and synthesizing another substance in a chemical reaction .
The most common known reagents are HIV test and Pregnancy test strips.
Different reagents are used to test for different substances eg proteins and glucoses in Urine that indicate presence of disorders like diabetes , urinary tract infections.
The Kilifi county referral hospital is the largest hospital in the county and the only referral hospital .
This comes as the hospital is in the final stages of completing an sh 500 million modern hospital complex.
On Friday the Kilifi County health CEC Dr Anisa Omar told journalists that they were in the process of solving the problem as they had issued Local Purchase orders to medical supply companies .
