Nakuru governor launches Sh100m outpatient complex
Provision of health care services in Nakuru county has received a major boost after Governor Lee Kinyanjui launched construction of the fifth Sh100 million state-of-the-art outpatient unit at the Molo Level 4 Sub-County Hospital.
The stand-alone complex will have a pharmacy, X-ray machines and modern laboratories and is expected to be in operation within six months. The facility will house an imaging centre and surgical theatres among other essential services.
Speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony, Kinyanjui said the outpatient complex will also offer the highest standard of medical training and specialised healthcare services.
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The hospital also caters for accident patients received from the notorious Sobea-Salgaa-Sachangwan-Mau Summit-Makutano black spot along the Nakuru-Eldoret highway.
Initially, congestion affected service delivery, forcing most patients, especially accident victims, to be referred to the Nakuru Level Five Hospital.
“The facility will have trauma/accident and emergency, obstetrics, gynecology, ophthalmology, pharmacy, radiology and radiotherapy and minor surgery theatres among other departments.
Medical services
“For the last three years, my administration has laid emphasis on provision of quality and affordable medical services to all residents.
The facility will supplement the 90 per cent complete Sh600 million outpatient facility at the Nakuru Level 5 Hospital and the Sh40 million centre of excellence for mental health care under construction at the Gilgil Sub-County Hospital. The latter will be operational in less than six months,” said Kinyanjui.
Molo Level 4 Sub-County Hospital which serves patients from Molo, Kuresoi, Njoro and parts of Rongai constituency, has previously been on the spot for poor services and congestion among other challenges, a situation the governor says is set to become a thing of the past.
Kinyanjui said investment in modern outpatient units across the region was part of his administration’s efforts to revamp the county’s health sector and improve efficiency in emergency response.
The County administration, he said was keen on decongesting the Nakuru Level 5 Teaching and Referral Hospital by modernising all Sub-county hospitals.
The Level 5 hospital serves more than eight counties in the South Rift region including Bomet, Kericho, Samburu, Baringo, Nyandarua, and Laikipia where 2,000 patients are treated daily, 750 of them being in-patients.
Kinyanjui noted malaria, diseases of the respiratory system, skin diseases, diarrhoea, and intestinal parasites were major challenges at outpatient facilities around the county.
The new facility he noted would provide easily accessible health services for Kenyans in the county and beyond.
Increase allocation
Huge investment in outpatient health facilities is still needed to improve health services across the county.
We are looking at avenues towards increasing budgetary allocation and looking for donor support.
There is need to realise that frequent health problems including injuries, urinary tract infections, eye infections, rheumatism, and other infections are handled by outpatient facilities.
Combined, these 10 leading conditions account for nearly four-fifths of the total outpatient cases reported,” said the governor.
According to the county Health department, the outpatient wing will also offer diagnostic tests, dental health care and dermatology among other critical services.
“We are experiencing an increased influx of referrals from other hospitals and health centres within the larger Rift Valley.
Our strategy is not only to cope with the numbers but mainly to offer quality and affordable disease diagnostic, management and treatment services.
The laboratories, pharmacy and X-ray facilities within the standalone facility will be purely for the out-patients and it will ensure faster and more efficient process of laboratory tests, X-ray services and dispensing of drugs.
Initially, both the in-patients and the out-patients have been competing for the same facilities,” said Health Executive Dr Zachary Gichuki Kariuki.
Last week, construction works kicked off at the modern Sh330 million outpatient complex at the Naivasha Sub-County Referral Hospital expected to be operational within the next 18 months.
Dr Gichuki said the project is a joint-partnership by the County and National governments and Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen).
The county runs 184 health facilities including dispensaries, health centres, level four hospitals and the Nakuru Level Five Hospital. -KNA
