Mathare Level 5 hospital ‘almost complete’
The newly-built Mathare-Korogocho Level 5 Hospital will be ready by end of next month ahead of its commissioning in April, Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) has announced.
The hospital in Mathare North, located on a five-story building, is expected to begin admitting patients in May.
NMS Director General Major General Mohamed Badi said they have already made a request to the national government to set aside a budget for equipping the hospital with the process of procurement for equipment already underway.
He pointed out that construction works at the hospital should be completed by February before its launch in April.
The Maj-Gen added that his team is negotiating with the National Treasury to ensure the health facility is up and running before the end of the current financial year in June.
“We are hopeful that once the infrastructure is completed next month, we will embark on employing doctors, nurses, and other staff to cater for the hospital to be operational hopefully by the end of April if we receive the money to buy the equipment,” said Badi.
He added that the hospital will have all the facilities of a Level 5 hospital including its own mortuary, kidney dialysis centre, theatres, and an intensive care unit (ICU).
A Level-Five hospital is a county referral hospital with more than 100-bed capacity, inpatient department, and is run by a chief executive officer who must be a doctor by profession.
The facility will be at the same level as Mama Lucy Hospital which is also being upgraded by NMS.
The hospital is also expected to have more than 300 workers drawn from different cadres of the health profession.
Construction works on the health facility, which has been ongoing since 1989, had stalled for several years before President Uhuru Kenyatta in July instructed the Maj-Gen Badi-led administration to take over the upgrade of the facility.
And in November 2020, NMS said the work was already at 80 percent complete.
Badi said the hospital, together with 24 others which are nearing completion and will soon be operational, will reduce the burden on Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Mbagathi, Mama Lucy, and Pumwani Hospitals.