- Health CEC Roselyn Mungai said the healthcare facilities will offer the highest standard of medical training and top quality specialised healthcare services.
- She said the new facilities will offer services to more than 500,000 residents from Rongai, Njoro, Molo, Kuresoi North and Kuresoi South subcounties.
Image: KNA
The Nakuru County Government has commissioned the construction of two level 4 hospitals in Kuresoi North and Rongai subcounties at a cost of Sh498 million.
Health CEC Roselyn Mungai said the proposed medical facilities are part of Governor Susan Kihika’s Sh2 billion upgrade programme for health care facilities across eleven subcounties.
Mungai said the state-of-the-art in-patient complexes will be operational within the next 24 months.
She said the Rongai level 4 hospital, which is scheduled to be constructed at a site previously earmarked for a trauma centre before the advent of devolution, is projected to cost Sh249.8 million.
The remaining Sh248.2 million is allocated for construction of the second level 4 hospital in Kuresoi North subcounty.
"The two standalone complexes at Kuresoi North and Rongai subcounties 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," Mungai said.
The CEC said the healthcare 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,” Mungai said.
She said the new facilities will offer healthcare services to more than 500,000 residents from Rongai, Njoro, Molo, Kuresoi North and Kuresoi South subcounties and the adjoining areas.
This is in addition to accessing services including those related to trauma/accident and emergency, obstetrics, gynecology, ophthalmology, pharmacy, radiology and radiotherapy and minor surgery.
Mungai said the two hospital facilities will supplement the Sh650 million outpatient facility at the Nakuru Level 5 Hospital and the Sh40 million centre of excellence for mental health care at the Gilgil subcounty hospital and Sh60 million level 4 health facility at Karuswa in Bahati subcounty.
According to the CEC, other facilities nearing completion include the Sh60 million outpatient complex at Olenguruone health centre and the modern Sh330 million outpatient complex at the Naivasha Subcounty 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).
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.
She said the county administration was keen on decongesting the Nakuru Level 5 Teaching and Referral Hospital by modernising all subcounty hospitals.
"The 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," Mungai said.
“We are experiencing an increased influx of referrals from other hospitals and health centres within the larger Rift Valley, our strategy is to cope with the numbers and offer quality and affordable disease diagnostic, management and treatment services,” Mungai revealed.
Nakuru county runs 184 health facilities including dispensaries, health centres, level four hospitals and the Nakuru Level 5 Hospital.