Sh2.5bn set aside for stalled county hospitals
The county Government will spend Sh2.5 billion in the next two years to complete health projects.
The projects, inherited from the national government include the Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital which was only 45 per cent complete when it was opened by retired President Mwai Kibaki in February last year.
County Executive member in charge of Health Services Dr Timothy Kingondu said the hospital needed Sh300 million for building works and Sh200 million for equipment.
A stalled maternity wing at Mbagathi District Hospital requires Sh70 million to complete and Mutuini District Hospital in Dagorreti needs Sh200 million to be converted into a 24- hour operational facility.
Dr Kingondu said the rehabilitation of Pumwani Maternity Hospital which includes the demolition of some unsafe structures, replacement of worn out equipment, expansion of its midwifery and nursing training college would take up to Sh600 million.
“There is need to rehabilitate the hospital and the college as well as modernise their equipment. Some of the equipment are in awful conditions,” Dr Kingondu said.
He said Sh1.9 billion had already been approved by the County Assembly and supplementary budgetary allocations of Sh600 million were being compiled to be tabled before the Assembly for approval when sittings resume next month.
The medic said the county government was determined to provide accessible and quality health care services to residents.
“We found that the national government had allocated Sh100 million for drugs in Nairobi which cannot purchase quality medicines.
We expect to spend Sh600 million on pharmaceuticals and non pharmaceuticals,” he said.
This is even as he revealed that an assessment was underway to establish the status of the three major hospitals the county inherited with a view of ensuring that services are equitably distributed.
Awful conditions
“We want to establish which hospital is level five, four and three. Our plan is to divide the county in five regions and have a level five hospital in every region, a level four hospital in all 17 constituencies and level three hospitals in all Wards,” he pointed out.
“We must do everything to bring the services closer to the people. That was the core purpose of devolution,” he added.
All these, he said, will lead to need to hire more health workers which mean the budgetary allocations for health services will keep ascending annually.