I haven't posted in a few days because days just flowed into one another with my hospital stay with N(5), so I thought I'd post now to share my impressions of hospital care in Kenya.
Hopefully Mr. will be along another day for a "guest post" on this blog, because he's spent four days in Mombasa with D(3) and the others in our group! So he'll have to post about that.
Now, hospital in Kenya. Keep in mind I have virtually no experience of British hospitals other than maternity (I was in hospital for 24 hours following N's birth, and only 3 hours after D's), so I'm not comparing, just describing.
We arrived on Monday, near midnight. This isn't an A&E Department but a small suburban branch of a major private Nairobi hospital. We walked into an empty reception area and were seen within minutes. A doctor checked her over a few minutes later, and diagnosed pneumonia. Blood was taken for a lab test, and half an hour later we had the results.
Following this, we were given a private room because the children's ward was full. Mr. came with a bag of clothes, and I was given a hot meal (which really surprised me! In the hectic time leading up to taking her to hospital, I hadn't had a chance to eat...) - remember this is at midnight!
Over the next day, I was impressed with the cleanliness: the floor is mopped something like four times a day, our ensuite bathroom is cleaned daily and fresh bed linens put on.
Because fruit was the one thing N would eat when she was feeling ill, I asked our friends for fruit and they brought lots, which the friendly kitchen staff would take away and chop up ready to eat whenever we asked.
Meals - every day I'd fill in a menu sheet with three choices (one veggie). Breakfast is always the same, jam sandwich and "porridge" which has a weird wobbly consistency and needs sugar to be palatable. Lunch and dinner is usually bean stew with either rice or cooked banana or chapati. Mid morning and mid afternoon a hot drink arrives. The one thing that has surprised me about Kenya, is that there is no decent coffee to be had! If you want coffee it's Nescafé instant (brrrr) otherwise your choices consist of Milo, hot chocolate or tea.
We're due to be released tomorrow after breakfast. I would have preferred not to end up in hospital for nearly a week of our stay, of course, but it's been a really positive experience. Made easier by lovely staff, good food, a clean and big room, and many visitors from the local church as well as N's best friend Shawn, Emmanuel's son, who's been the biggest support and help in all this.
Hopefully Mr. will be along another day for a "guest post" on this blog, because he's spent four days in Mombasa with D(3) and the others in our group! So he'll have to post about that.
Now, hospital in Kenya. Keep in mind I have virtually no experience of British hospitals other than maternity (I was in hospital for 24 hours following N's birth, and only 3 hours after D's), so I'm not comparing, just describing.
We arrived on Monday, near midnight. This isn't an A&E Department but a small suburban branch of a major private Nairobi hospital. We walked into an empty reception area and were seen within minutes. A doctor checked her over a few minutes later, and diagnosed pneumonia. Blood was taken for a lab test, and half an hour later we had the results.
Following this, we were given a private room because the children's ward was full. Mr. came with a bag of clothes, and I was given a hot meal (which really surprised me! In the hectic time leading up to taking her to hospital, I hadn't had a chance to eat...) - remember this is at midnight!
Over the next day, I was impressed with the cleanliness: the floor is mopped something like four times a day, our ensuite bathroom is cleaned daily and fresh bed linens put on.
Because fruit was the one thing N would eat when she was feeling ill, I asked our friends for fruit and they brought lots, which the friendly kitchen staff would take away and chop up ready to eat whenever we asked.
Meals - every day I'd fill in a menu sheet with three choices (one veggie). Breakfast is always the same, jam sandwich and "porridge" which has a weird wobbly consistency and needs sugar to be palatable. Lunch and dinner is usually bean stew with either rice or cooked banana or chapati. Mid morning and mid afternoon a hot drink arrives. The one thing that has surprised me about Kenya, is that there is no decent coffee to be had! If you want coffee it's Nescafé instant (brrrr) otherwise your choices consist of Milo, hot chocolate or tea.
We're due to be released tomorrow after breakfast. I would have preferred not to end up in hospital for nearly a week of our stay, of course, but it's been a really positive experience. Made easier by lovely staff, good food, a clean and big room, and many visitors from the local church as well as N's best friend Shawn, Emmanuel's son, who's been the biggest support and help in all this.
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