Recently, I was honoured to be by my friend’s side as we welcomed her baby into the world. Only this time, I wasn’t there as the doctor but as family. It was an experience that had me reflecting on how care is offered in many of our facilities.

Because she was admitted in the executive wing of a fancy private hospital, I was able to sit with her for over 12 hours without being thrown out of the room. The baby was born in the mid-morning and in the afternoon, her older children came to the hospital to meet their newborn sibling. They brought food from home and ate together as family.

This enabled them to spend a little time with mum and dad, and satisfy the urge to meet their baby brother. They held the baby and the older sister even got to change his diaper. At the end of the day, the children went home satisfied and mum was contented.

In a different scenario, I had a young mum expecting her second born. Her first baby had just turned one, learning how to walk with an adorable smile revealing two teeth. She steadfastly breastfed her first throughout pregnancy as I encouraged her to tandem breastfeed them both as long as milk was in plenty. Her little boy had never been separated from her and usually fell asleep on the breast.

On the day she went into labour, she checked into hospital with her husband, her son and her mother-in-law. The maternity staff were very accommodating. They checked her into her private suite quickly and settled in the baby and the grandma, while she went to the delivery suite.

At 9 o’clock in the evening, she delivered a bouncing baby boy and both mother and newborn were wheeled back into the suite to join the others. That night, she slept with both her babies, assisted by her husband while grandma went home to rest. They were extremely grateful for the support they received from the ward staff.

This is a far cry from Kellen’s* experience. Her husband Samuel* is a known diabetic who was admitted in the county referral hospital for prostate surgery. However, his post-operative recovery wasn’t as smooth because his blood sugar levels kept on swinging upwards, slowing down his recovery.

Samuel confided in Kellen that he thought his sugar control was poor because of his diet in the ward. Samuel ate brown ugali and traditional vegetables on most days and while at home, he generally had no problem with his sugar levels. The hospital did not have brown ugali and the only leafy vegetables he was served were cabbages.

The next day, Kellen dutifully arrived with brown ugali and traditional vegetables during the lunch time visit. Unfortunately, her effort was discarded in the waste bin at the gate to the wards. The security officers wouldn’t allow her to bring in food. No amount of pleading and explanation  would soften their hearts. A heartbroken Kellen walked in to see her husband in tears.

In over 60 years of independence, many of our hospitals remain prisons for our patients. The number of gates and security officers in our public hospitals can only rival our correctional facilities. Why, pray tell, are our patients in prison? They came to seek care and once they enter our wards, they take away all their freedom and treat them like criminals who only want to run away without settling our bills.

We must soundly advocate for patient-centered care and ensure its full implementation. Many hospital cultures are in direct conflict with this! Many draconian rules in hospitals, especially in public hospitals need to be reviewed. It is time we tore the rule book and came up with more humane ways to run our institutions.

The first to be reviewed should be the visiting hours rules. For many years, one of our elite private children’s hospital did not have visiting hours. Family members visited at their convenience and this resulted in absence of overcrowding at any one time. Unfortunately, this amazing practice was scrapped and now the hospital looks like a crowded shopping mall over lunch hour and in the evenings. If infection prevention is the excuse for this archaic rule, then this is definitely not holding any water!

The other curious excuse is how children below the age of 13 are denied access to their sick family members. Parents have died without an opportunity to say goodbye to their children, simply because of this rule. If this isn’t inhuman, I don’t know what is! A sick person is at the most vulnerable point in their lives. It is simply unbelievable that those tasked with providing physical, psychological and mental well being are the same ones who are unable to see this!

The other one is the practice of tossing out relatives who are willing to help with the care of their patients, especially the moribund ones. This is purely a discriminative practice simply because the same relatives are allowed free access in executive rooms where the nurse-to-patient ratio is even lower. Therefore, the excuse that they shall interfere with patient care does not hold water.  Let us not forget that these patients are discharged home to the same family members who we treat with so much hostility, yet we expect them to nurse them through their convalescence. Time to toss out the colonial rule book and make our hospitals humane!