The County Government of Nakuru has commissioned the construction of two Sub County Level 4 hospitals in Kuresoi North and Rongai to a tune of Sh498 million.
County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Health Services, Ms. Roselyn Mungai, said the two proposed medical facilities were part of Governor Susan Kihika’s Sh2 billion upgrade programme for health care facilities across the eleven sub-counties and added that the state-of-the-art inpatient complexes will be operational within the next 24 months.
According to the CECM, the Rongai Sub County Level 4 hospital, which is scheduled to be constructed at a site that had previously been earmarked for a trauma centre before the advent of devolution, is projected to cost Sh249.8 million, while the remaining Sh248.2 million is allocated for construction of the Kuresoi North Sub County Level 4 hospital.
The two standalone complexes at Kuresoi North and Rongai Sub-Counties, will each feature a modern maternity and neonatal wing, a pharmacy, x-ray machines, and modern laboratories in addition to housing outpatient units, accident and emergency units, imaging centres, and theatres, Ms. Mungai said.
She further said the health care facilities will offer the highest standard of medical training and top quality specialised healthcare services.
“The Kuresoi North two-storey hospital will include an outpatient block, a 100-bed inpatient department, two theatres, a maternity wing, laboratories, and specialised services,” explained Ms. Mungai.
She stated that the new facilities will be designed to offer health care services to more than 500,000 residents from the sub-counties of Rongai, Njoro, Molo, Kuresoi North and Kuresoi South and adjoining areas, in addition to accessing services related to trauma/accident and emergency, obstetrics, gynaecology, ophthalmology, pharmacy, radiology and radiotherapy, and minor surgery.
While emphasising the county’s commitment to providing quality and affordable medical services to all residents, Ms. Mungai said the two hospital facilities will supplement the Sh650 million outpatient facility at the Nakuru Level 5 Hospital, the Sh40 million centre of excellence for mental health care at the Gilgil Sub-County Hospital, and the Sh60 million Level 4 health facility at Karuswa in Bahati Sub-County.
Other health care facilities nearing completion, according to the CECM, include the Sh60 million outpatient complex at Olenguruone Health Centre and the modern Sh330 million outpatient complex at the Naivasha Sub-County Referral Hospital, which is expected to be operational within the next three months. The latter project is a joint-partnership of the County and National governments and Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen).
Ms. Mungai said investment in modern health care provision units across the devolved unit was part of the county administration’s efforts to revamp the county’s health sector and improve efficiency in emergency response.
The County administration, she said, was keen on decongesting the Nakuru Level 5 Teaching and Referral Hospital by modernising all sub-county hospitals.
Nakuru Teaching and Referral 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 inpatients, explained Ms. Mungai.
“We are experiencing an increased influx of referrals from other hospitals and health centres within the larger Rift Valley, and our strategy is not only to cope with the numbers but mainly to offer quality and affordable disease diagnostic, management, and treatment services,” Ms. Mungai pointed out.
The county runs 184 health facilities, including dispensaries, health centres, level four hospitals, and the Nakuru Level Five Hospital.
By Esther Mwangi
