Gates to Pumwani Maternity Hospital will be open from 6am until 7pm in new guidelines issued by Nairobi Metropolitan Services director-general Mohammed Badi.
Additional patient stretchers, wheelchairs and screens are to be placed at the emergency department.
An in-charge nurse will man the emergency desk to answer at any time to the gate to assist patients with noted difficulties or disabilities.
“All security officers are to report to the administrator or representative of the administrator at the beginning of every shift,” Badi said.
The service procedures have been adopted at Pumwani in response to an incident where a woman gave birth at the entrance of the facility.
On September 13, Jackline Faustine delivered at the entrance of the hospital after finding the gates closed.
“The spouse reported that they were denied entry by the security guards who informed them of an ongoing nurses' industrial action at the hospital,” Badi told the National Assembly's Health Committee.
The new measures and procedures seek to ensure ease of access for patients and avoid similar incidents in the future.
Badi said that there would be retraining of health workers in all NMS facilities offering maternity services on respective maternity care and customer care.
“This has already started but we hope to scale up to all the staff before the end of the year with the support of UNFPA and other partners,” he noted.
Badi said any instructions concerning closure of hospitals to security teams should be in writing from hospital management and authorised by the head of Health Services Directorate at NMS.
He said NMS had requested National Police Service to extend the provision of security for government buildings to all the four major hospitals.
“NMS has posted 30 nurses and 10 doctors on short term contract to Pumwani hospital to ease the workload,” he said.