The ongoing countrywide nurses strike has reportedly led to an alarming increase of the mentally ill persons in the streets of Mombasa.
This comes as nurses drawn from the entire coast region, vowed to continue with the ongoing nurses strike untill their demands are met.
Mombasa branch Kenya National Union of Nurses Secretary General, Peter Maroko said that it was a concern that most of the mentally ill patients who were discharged from the Portrizt hospital three months ago, after the nurses strike began were unable to continue with the life saving treatment ,and their conditions had repulsed.
“Just take a walk to the streets of Mwembe Tayari you will notice fresh cases of mentally ill patients, who were previously under medication however since the strike began and they were evacuated to their homes,” he said
He at the same time noted that drug addicts and abusers had not been left out by the nurses crisis noting that most of the drug abusers who had been put on methadone to treat the withdrawal symptoms had since be stopped.
Maroko added most of the drug addicts who had been put in the programme by various, governments institutions charged with the duty of dispensing methadone had since deserted the institutions due to lack of nurses to attend to them and gone back to abusing drugs.
