Uhuru to commission Nairobi’s first Level 5 hospital

Nairobi’s first Level 5 hHospital will finally open its doors to  patients this week, Nairobi Metropolitan Services has said.

The Sh400 million five–storey Korogocho-Mathare hospital is expected to reduce the patient load at Mama Lucy Hospital, which serves more than 2.1 million people in Eastlands area.

NMS director general Mohamed Badi last week told the Senate Health Committee that it is expected President Uhuru Kenyatta will commission the hospital this week.

“Construction works at the Korogocho – Mathare hospital are complete and we are hoping it will be commissioned by His Excellency in the first week of November ,” he said.

A Level 5 hospital is a county referral hospital with more than 100-bed capacity and is run by a chief executive officer who must be a doctor by profession.

The 350-bed capacity hospital boasts a 24-hour pharmacy, dialysis centre, an intensive care unit, burns unit and surgical theatres.

The hospital will offer dialysis, radiology services, tuberculosis management, mortuary and autopsy services, pathology, chemotherapy and forensic services.

Construction work, which has been ongoing since 1989, stalled for several years before President Uhuru Kenyatta in July last year directed the Badi-led administration to take over.

Badi told the senators that NMS has finalised the recruitment of nurses and medical staff for the new hospital.

This year, NMS has hired 1,700 health staff who have been deployed in the 15 out the 24 new hospitals in city slums.

“We have just concluded the recruitment of medical staff including nurses for the new Korogocho- Mathare hospital,” Badi said.

The hospital is expected to have more than 300 workers in different cadres of the health profession.

In September, NMS signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology to have the students pursuing medical courses undertake their practical studies at the hospital.

The hospital will dedicate an entire floor to attend to bodaboda riders injured at work.

President Kenyatta last year August directed NMS to construct 24 hospitals, with 19 to be built from scratch.