President Uhuru Kenyatta and Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho are today expected to officially commission a multi-million cancer treatment center at Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital (CGTRH).
The new facility will be the second cancer center in Kenya after the one at Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital in Nairobi.
It has been fitted with state-of-the-art radiotherapy machines and can treat up to 120 patients per week when it becomes fully operational.
Last Friday, Heath Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe inspected the facility ahead of today’s President Uhuru’s visit.
The Head of State, who is in Mombasa for a two-day official visit, on Monday confirmed that he will officially open the new centre at CGTRH today.
“Tomorrow, together with Governor Joho (Mombasa), we will officially open the cancer centre at Coast General Hospital. The coast residents will now have access to cancer treatment locally,” said President Uhuru.
The new facility, which was built in partnership between the national government and the county government, will offer both radiotherapy and chemotherapy sessions.
The national government provided infrastructure while the county government gave out land and human resources.
Last year, CGTRH attended to 6,296 cases of cancer, according to the data from the hospital administration.
Of the over 6,000 cases, 629 were newly diagnosed cases whereas 1,690 patients were undergoing chemotherapy and about 300 radiotherapy sessions.
On Monday, the President launched the national scale-up of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) at the Port Reitz sub-County Hospital in Mombasa.
Speaking during the function, which was attended by several Cabinet Secretaries, governors and MPs, President Uhuru affirmed the government’s commitment to spreading the benefits of UHC across the country.
“In this regard, my administration has developed the Universal Healthcare Coverage Policy, covering the period 2020 – 2030, to guide the acceleration of the progress in attaining Universal Health Coverage,” he said.
The UHC programme was started in the country in 2013, with the launch of the highly free maternity programme dubbed “Linda Mama”, which currently benefits over one million mothers annually.
Since 2013, the investments in health infrastructure has seen an increase of 43 per cent in public health facilities from a stock of 4,429 facilities in 2013 to 6,342 currently.
“In the same period, our ICU capacity has increased by an impressive 502 per cent, and our total hospital bed capacity has also increased significantly by 47 per cent,” he said.
Earlier on, President Uhuru opened this year’s international Health Workforce Conference at the Sarova Whitesand Hotel Mombasa.
The three-day conference on harmonization of the curriculum and training of healthcare professionals aims at enhancing the skills of healthcare staff, a key factor in the delivery of UHC.