Disability is not Inability

:: Is Nairobi Hospital Disability-friendly?

I posed this question for a few friends after working as a sign language interpreter for a patient who was admitted to the hospital for a week. The Nairobi Hopistal is one of the most prestigious Hospitals in the country with some of the best healthcare services. The Hospitals Mission is : To Provide a regional centre of Exellence in quality healthcare through efficient services.

So does the exellence to nairobi hospital include disability-friendliness? How many diosabled people would afford this in the first place? One asked me. But the few who can afford should find some friendliness. The patient was actually reffered there and the bill was audacious to say the least. But the health service was quite classic.

The Hospital has atleast better quality of service if compared with other in relation to disability firendliness. There are quite a number of rumps for wheelchair mobility. This is as a result of the hospital policy to carry all its patient enroute to any servce using wheel chairs. This makes mobility for those on wheel chairs quite comfortable. In most cases you will also get someone to push you.

The hospital also has a disabilityfirendly washroom. This is one of the most unique facilities in the upmarket health facility. Its has a wheelchair sign showing disability on the door. The seats are low and adjusted to suit physical challenges. The facilities like tissue, taps, sinks or wash basins are quite low. Its clasisc the kind you would wish would be in the National refferal hospital Kenyatta even at a lower quality.


To what extent does the Disability Act 2004 require a health facility to adjust to become disability-friendly?

Nairobi Hospital values include: Quality, Visionary, Integrity, and dynamism. compassionate, proffessionalism and social responsibility. All these indicate the need to be able to at least have one staff who knows how to communicate in Kenya or basic sign language. The various staff in various uniform makes the place quite easily adjusted shuld there be a need for guides for patients who may be blind or deaf blind. visionary, dynamism and social responsibility implies they have the spirit to do it.

Otherwise congratulations for an architecture that suits physical disability. quite a number of hospitals in Kenya do not build with such in mind even bearing the fact that many patients who go the hospital have physical needs in the first place.


The only this quite obviously NOT disability friendly at the moment is cost. To access the health facility quite an amount of financial strength is required. The number of PWD with such strength is too smal to warrant any adjustments. MAybe as part of its social responsibility the Hospital can be giving special rates for the PWDs so that they can also enjoy quality healthcare. What do you think?



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Category: Health

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