• Nyoro said the county has 60 isolation beds for any cases of Covid-19 in three level 5 hospitals – Thika, Kiambu and Gatundu.
• The county chief said his administration is working round the clock to ensure the 108 health facilities in the county are well-staffed and stocked with medical supplies.
The Kiambu government will start recruiting more health workers in a week as directed by the Ministry of Health, Governor James Nyoro has said.
He said delays in recruiting nurses and clinical officers had been occasioned by the lack of a fully constituted Public Service Board and cabinet in the county.
Speaking on Tuesday during the swearing-in of nine executive members at the county headquarters in Kiambu town, Nyoro said the Public Service Board and the cabinet are in office and the process of hiring more medics will start in a week.
“The first duty of the PSB will be to focus on recruitment and expeditious deployment of health workers of various cadres as requested by the ministry," Nyoro said.
"We will sit with the cabinet and agree on the number of doctors, nurses and clinical officers who will be recruited. We will not waste time in this process.”
The county chief said his administration is working round the clock to ensure the 108 health facilities in the county are well-staffed and stocked with medical supplies.
Nyoro said the county government has made a Sh38 million procurement request to the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority for medical supplies and is still waiting for the Sh138 million supplies the county signed for the Universal Health Care programme.
The governor said the county has 60 isolation beds for any cases of Covid-19 in three level 5 hospitals – Thika, Kiambu and Gatundu.
“Our County Disaster Response team has also identified 20 additional facilities, most of them being schools and institutions that can be utilized for isolation and quarantine,” he said.
“Additional resources and equipment for preliminary testing have been availed at all our level four and five hospitals.”
He said the county has also purchased more ventilators for level 5 hospitals – Thika, Kiambu and Gatundu – to enhance their capacity. Each has two ventilators.
To improve preparedness, Nyoro said, Wangige and Tigoni level 4 hospitals will open doors to the public.
“The two projects are among many projects that are in the pipeline to improve the county’s health sector and ensure residents have access to health services at ease,” he said.
Edited by A.N