160-bed hospital wing gives hope to Mwatate residents

The expanded Mwatate sub-county hospital will serve the sub-county and the Voi/Taveta Highway corridor.

For decades, the hospital has been struggling to serve the population due to a lack of critical infrastructure.

The hospital now has modern equipment and advanced medical services, superintendent Dr Esha Said said.

It has a wing with 160 beds, a maternity wing and a unit for newborns.

The new wing opened in March and the number of patients has increased steadily.

To ensure the smooth running of the new dialysis center and ICU, the hospital has put up a water treatment plant and a modern oxygen plant.

Dr Said said the facility will offer dialysis services to reduce the number of patients being referred to the already overstretched Moi County Referral hospital in Voi.

Implementing the facility, the medical superintendent said, has created space for ultrasound, orthopaedic, physiotherapy and counselling units.

The rooms initially used as wards have been renovated.

"We have used them to start more than four new units," the superintendent said.

The health facility was initially started as a Covid-19 isolation centre but later expanded to accommodate a new hospital wing.

The revamped hospital is now a key support facility for dispensaries that used to refer patients to Moi Hospital in Voi. 

She said the hospital has a paediatric ward, male and female wards, a gynaecological ward, an operating theatre and an ICU.

“It has an expanded and fully equipped laboratory and we can do many more tests now than before," she said.

Patient Esther Kidali praised the health department for the expanded facility, saying it has reduced the cost of treatment and travel.

In the past, Kidali said, patients had to wait a long time to be attended to.

“I delivered my baby here six weeks ago and the services are good. There are also more nurses," Kidali, who had just brought her baby for a check-up, said.

The facility is one of Governor Granton Samboja’s flagship projects.

Others are a cancer centre, a sickle cell and haemophilia centre, medical oxygen bulk storage plant and the Australian Aid and the Fred Hollows Foundation-funded eye Centre, all at Moi County Referral Hospital in Voi.

(Edited by V. Graham)