• Nairobi accounts for 47 per cent of the walk-ins at KNH, many of them from slums.
• Building, expanding and refurbishing 24 health facilities in informal settlements will provide residents with much-needed quality and accessible health care, reducing the burden on KNH.
Image: KNH
How do you reduce overcrowding in a 1,800-bed hospital with 50 wards, 22 outpatient clinics, 24 theatres, an overflowing Emergency Department and walk-ins arriving in droves?
The answer is building or refurbishing 24 hospitals in informal settlements where most people who need help just walk in at KNH and sometimes it's overwhelmed..
With all these hospitals in place, health services can be made accessible anywhere in Nairobi without going to KNH.
Furthermore, on July 1 all walk-ins will be barred from KNH.
Nairobi Metropolitan Services director general Mohammed Badi announced the end to walk-ins last week. Nairobi contributes 47 per cent of walk-ins and sometimes the hospital is overwhelmed.
The decision was reached last week by key health sector figures in government and hospitals.
“This is how it should be so KNH can concentrate on offering premium and highly specialised services to Kenyans who troop to India, South Africa, Turkey and other countries for medical care," Badi said.
Badi said KNH as a strong health referral system does not exist in isolation of other well-functioning healthcare facilities.
“Investing in an efficient referral system includes changing use of hospitals, increasing the number of hospitals and reviewing the scope of services in some hospitals,” he said
Image: WILFRED NYANGERESI
The 24 new and upgraded hospitals in Nairobi's informal settlement will cost Sh2 billion. President Uhuru Kenyatta directed that they be built
The hospitals will be in Viwandani, Majengo, Mathare, Kayole, Soweto, Korogocho, Kawangware, Gitare Marigu, Mukuru Kwa Njenga, Mukuru Kwa Reuben, Kibera and Githurai 44.
Of these, 19 facilities are being built from scratch while five would be rehabilitated.
Ten of the new hospitals will be Level 2 and the rest will be Level 3
They are in slums because quality accessible healthcare is beyond the reach of many living in informal settlements.
The challenge of urban slums is particularly acute in Nairobi where many people live in informal settlements where sanitation and healthcare are poor.
In February, four of the 24 hospitals were commissioned by the President. The Uthiru-Muthua Hospital is Level 3 while the other three — Kiamaiko, Soweto and Ushirika — are Level 2 facilities, or dispensaries.
A dispensary has opened at the Green Park terminus.
NMS said the five health facilities have attended to 24,000 patients since February.
Due to improved services, Pumwani Maternity Hospital has become a preferred place to give birth. Last month it delivered 1,420 babies compared to 878 delivered at KNH.
Six more facilities among the 24 are expected to be commissioned this month.
NMS has already employed 2,000 healthcare workers, including 44 specialists, 679 nurses and 130 doctors to ensure enough staff in all the 24 hospitals and others.
UPGRADING LEVEL 4 TO 5
Mama Lucy, as the main public health facility in Eastlands, is being upgraded to a Level 5 facility, which is a county referral hospital.
It will have 120 beds, up from the current 112, and an 18-bed ICU.
This week, a blood collection centre was opened at Mama Lucy. It is the second public collection facility in Kenya apart from the the Blood Transfusion Unit at KNH.
A ticketing system has been put in place at Mama Lucy to clear the long queue of patients awaiting surgeries. It will be extended to other health facilities
Korogocho-Mathare hospital is being refurbished and upgraded to a Level 5 facility for Sh300 million.
It was constructed in the early 1990s but is dilapidated. NMS is reviving the well-known mental hospital to serve many other needs as well.
Badi said the major upgrade for Korogocho-Mathare will reduce the number of patients at Mama Lucy and services will be similar.
For three years, the government has been planning how to decongest KNH.
In February 2018, a task force was formed to develop a master plan limiting referrals to KNH. It included the Health ministry, KNH and Nairobi county.
KNH is the largest of seven Level 6 hospitals, providing specialised services and training professionals.
The decision on decongesting KNH was taken at a meeting involving NMS, Health CAS Dr Mercy Mwangangi, PS Susan Mochache, KNH chief executive officer Evans Kamuri, Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital CEO Victor Njom and NHIF boss Peter Kamunyo.
(Edited by V. Graham)