The Mbagathi District Hospital is set for a major facelift after the Nairobi City County allocated Sh150 million shillings for an upgrade of the facility in this financial year.
The facelift will include construction of a new Intensive Care Unit, Outpatient Department, a new Inpatient Ward, a new laboratory among others.
Nairobi City County Health Executive Mohamed Dagane has announced that the new upgrade of the Mbagathi District Hospital will also include renovation of the hospital’s old maternity wing which was temporarily shut down last year due to poor workmanship.
“We are set for a major facelift of the Mbagathi District Hospital in the 2019/20 financial year. We have so far allocated Sh150 million towards the project which is aimed at making the Mbagathi Hospital a Level Five Hospital,” Dagane said.
Dagane has promised that the Nairobi City County Government is committed in upgrading Mbagathi Hospital, Pumwani Maternity Hospital and Mama Lucy Hospital into Level Five Hospitals. The County Government is also planning to refurbish all the 102 health facilities across the county, starting with Level Three and Level Four hospitals.
“We have a strategic plan to upgrade the three major hospitals in Nairobi County into Level Five Hospitals. This financial year we have been allocated a budget of Sh7.4 billion for the Health sector.
The programme will also include refurbishment of all the 102 health facilities in the county. We are confident this will help us to improve the quality of healthcare services in the county as promised by Governor Mike Sonko,” added Dagane.
The new upgrade of Mbagathi will expand the hospital’s bed capacity to 120 with the construction of a new wing that will have a 60-bed capacity in addition to the old wing which also has a bed capacity of 60 beds.
“Issues of congestion at the Mbagathi Hospital will be a thing of the past once we complete the renovations of the old maternity wing which was temporarily shut down for repairs. The new modern wing which will also comprise of an outpatient wing will be complete in the next few months,” he stated.
The Mbagathi Hospital has of late been experienced an influx of patients both inpatient and outpatient for the last one year and Dagane has attributed this to the improved health care service at the facility.
“We are currently witnessing an influx of patients at Mbagathi, Mama Lucy and Pumwani Hospitals due to improved services in our county hospitals. I want to thank Governor Sonko for making sure that we have uninterrupted healthcare services which includes constant supply of drugs in our county facilities.
In the last two weeks we have been distributing drugs in our health centers and the exercise will continue until our centers are fully stocked with drugs,” said the Nairobi Health boss. At the same time City Hall will in the next few days start the recruitment of health workers in the County to improve service delivery in the health sector.
This is after formation of the new Nairobi City County Public Service Board. “The recruitment of the health workers was put on hold due to lack of the County Public Service Board. But we are now set to start the recruitment that will comprise of doctors, nurses, clinical officers, laboratory technicians among others,” he said.
Meanwhile the Nairobi City County Government will this financial year roll out a pilot project for the Universal Health Care in line with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four agenda. The pilot project in conjunction with the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) will target 12,500 households in all the 85 Wards in Nairobi County.
“We want to make universal health coverage a reality as enshrined in the Big Four Agenda. We will soon launch the pilot project that will cover at least 150 households in all the 85 Wards. This project will eventually be rolled out to accommodate more households from the informal settlement areas to ensure the less fortunate members of the society access medical cover,” Dagane indicated.
