I still remember the hype all over OlKalou when the new District Hospital was opened to patients in mid 1970s. Everybody, all of a sudden had an “ailment” that needed treatment at the brand new hospital. And brand new it was. The hospital was painted all white, making it look exceptionally clean.
The lawns were green, with soft grass that was perfectly manicured, it looked like a golf course. Flower beds lined the paved roads entering the hospital, and more flowers danced in the wind along the paved walkways which had roofs over them, you could walk all over the hospital in the rain without getting wet.
From the Nairobi Nyahururu highway, a dirt road led you to the hospital gate a few hundred meters inwards. You knew you were in different territory the moment you stepped through the steel gates that stood open during the day.
Every road inside the hospital was tarmacked. Shiny, jet black, smooth tarmac like we had never seen before, it was fun walking that short distance to the hospital’s front door. The road continued straight to the administration building, where hospital vehicles, including an ambulance, were parked outside. Halfway on that road, there was a gentle slope that led patients directly to the front doors of the hospital building.
The huge doors ushered patients into an open lobby with a huge round counter where patients registered and were issued with treatment cards. There were dark well polished wooden benches built in “U” shape where patients waited to be called inside.
There were some double doors through which patients exited the lobby and into a hallway lined with more benches, and rooms on either side. Those were the treatment rooms where patients were seen by doctors.
Further down the hall was the injection room, you could tell where it was from the unmistakable smell of disinfectants used during shots. Nobody wanted to go there unless they had to.
On the opposite side was the dressing room, where wounds were treated, mainly with GV, the purple iodine medicine that stayed on your skin for weeks. Next to it was a room where they put casts on broken limbs.
